Special Sessions
Sponsored by the Geomorphology Specialty Group
Association of American Geographers 102nd Annual Meeting
Chicago, Illinois, March 7-11.

Soil Geography and Geomorphology II: GIS/mapping applications

Paper Session 3516
Thursday, 3/9/06, from 3:00 PM - 4:40 PM

Sponsorship(s):

Geomorphology Specialty Group

Organizer(s):

Randy Schaetzl - Michigan State University
Peter Scull

Chair(s):

Peter Scull

Abstract(s):

• 3:00 PM Author(s):
  *Sharon Whitmoyer Waltman - USDA NRCS National Geospatial Development Center
  Ray Sinclair - USDA NRCS National Soil Survey Center
  Robert Dobos - USDA NRCS National Soil Survey Center
  Russ Kelsea - USDA NRCS National Soil Survey Center
  Dennis Little - USDA NRCS Soil Survey Division
  

  Abstract Title: National Soil Resource Assessment using Ecological and Geopolitical Frameworks

  
  

  A Soil Diversity Index (SDI) was developed to compare the diversity of soils in natural ecological/soil landscapes with the diversity of soils in geopolitical units. U.S. counties were chosen to represent the geopolitical framework. Natural divisions of soil landscapes were chosen as an ecological framework. The SDI uses the Soil Root Zone Available Water Capacity (RZAWC) for commodity crops as the soil quality or attribute being assessed. The SDI uses area of soils mapped in each category of RZAWC as the importance value. The volume of soil RZAWC for each category is divided by the total county soil RZAWC, squared, and summed for all categories. The reciprocal of this value results in the SDI for the geopolitical and ecological frameworks. Early findings suggest there is greater diversity in the soil RZAWC for counties than for parts of Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs) within counties. The greater SDI values for counties indicate that ecological/soil units may be more useful for conducting equitable resource assessments than geopolitical units.

  Keywords: ecological framework, geopolitical framework, soil, resource assessment, national

  
  
• 3:20 PM Author(s):
  *Paddington Hodza - West Virgina University
  Trevor Harris - West Virgina University
  

  Abstract Title: Geovisualization and digital soil mapping

  
  

  Soil mapping is essentially a visualization enterprise involving the creation of mental models representing the relationships between soil and landscape properties. These mental models provide the basis for soil pre-mapping that is developed from aerial photographs and field observation. Digital orthophotographs primarily provide the map base upon which soil boundaries are interpreted. The opportunity now exists to enhance the soil mapping process through the use of geovisualization capabilities. The use of real-time stereo projection and 2.5D draped landscape models with flight simulation capability are of immediate interest. The potential of linking Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and GIS is also intriguing for the capabilities this technology would provide in linking visualization and complex geo-spatial data and facilitating a more intuitive interpretative process through the immersive capabilities of VR. This paper reviews some of the geovisualization possibilities that promise to enhance the soil mapping process and identifies some COTS solutions that would minimize the cost of such implementations.

  Keywords: Geovisualization, Digital soil mapping, COTS

  
  
• 3:40 PM Author(s):
  *Jacob Drvar - West Virgina University
  Jesse Rouse - West Virgina University
  Trevor Harris - West Virgina University
  Vic Baker - West Virgina University
  

  Abstract Title: Geovisualization approaches to soil data representation and simulation

  
  

  Soils data has always been expert driven, from its creation, to mapping, through to its distribution to the user community. Empowering the public to effectively utilize this powerful and rich database requires new ways of approaching data representation that provides an intuitive approach to knowldge extraction. Geovisualization has the potential to provide a visual prism through which to visualize and interact with with the data. To this end the National Geospatial Development Center is undertaking research development on soil conservation that incorporates virtual modeling and simulation to facilitate the use of soils data by the general public and the expert alike. Conservation is a key component in the use of soils data. Geovisualization techniques that involve the scientific application of game engine software appears to be particualrly approporiate to support both expert and non-expert users. The visual representation and analysis of the sub-surface effects of water and pollutants and their recirpocal relationship with soils has also been problematic. We present here the results of 3D visual modeling of water transportation through soils and the analysis of phosphorous levels within soils in the Cacapon River watershed in the Potomac Basin of eastern West Virgina.

  Keywords: Soils, GIS, geovisualization

  
  
• 4:00 PM Author(s):
  *Amanda Moore - National Resources Conservation Service
  

  Abstract Title: Mapping Scale and Soil Survey Intensity: Some Thoughts on Updating Existing Mapping Guidelines for Predictive Soil Modeling

  
  

  The distribution of different kinds of soil is controlled by interactions between climate, parent material, organisms, and topography over time. Soil surveys document the spatial extent of different kinds of soils in a particular area and can be conducted at field, farm, county, regional, or national scales. This data is represented by polygons which contain one or more similar or dissimilar soil types. Minimum polygon size is a function of the intended use of the survey and the publication scale. A set of well documented field, cartographic, and quality control procedures are associated with each scale (order) of mapping. The emergence of computer-based predictive soil modeling requires us to revisit the concepts of survey intensity and mapping scale. Most predictive soil models rely on the presence of a correlation between quantitative environmental variables and expected soil properties or classes. This allows one to predict the expected location of particular soil entities from an analysis of readily available environmental data layers. Resulting data are typically presented in raster form and are not subject to the same arbitrary cartographic constraints as polygon data. Since minimum “delineation” size is dependent only on the resolution of input datasets, it is important to match the resolution of the analysis layers to the scale of the soil-landscape relationships. To successfully implement predictive soil modeling on a national basis, standards for input data resolution, scale of soil-landscape relationships, scale of soil-landscape knowledge, and data validation for field to national scale soil surveys must be developed.

  Keywords: soils, soil survey, mapping scale, predictive soil modeling

  
  
• 4:20 PM Author(s):
  *Randy Koch
  

  Abstract Title: Small scale distribution of nutrients in the topsoil and its correlation to land uses in a riparian area of a creek catchment on the Swiss Jura plateau

  
  

  The Länenbach Valley (2.61 square km, first order) is one of two river catchments within the region of Basel (NW-Switzerland) investigated by the “Applied Landscape Ecology in Rural Areas” working group at the Institute of Geography. The objective of the research project is a better understanding of nutrient dynamics within a catchment and of the interactions between different landscape elements. This presentation deals with the correlation of land use and nutrient contents in riparian areas. For this research 58 topsoil samples from an area of 30x40 metres were analyzed concerning their contents of parameters such as N, Ptotal, BAP, Ctotal, Corg and Cinorg. Moreover, ph-values and characteristics of the location on a small scale were recorded directly in the investigation area. The studied area comprises various land uses such as meadow, ploughed land, riparian grass strips, bank slopes and riparian wood on both sides of the creek as well as the river channel itself. GIS-interpolation tools were used to create maps from point data and correlation statistics are employed to assess the relationship between land uses and nutrients. Main results include that nitrogen correlates stronger with land uses than phosphorus. The correlations are disturbed by the small scale heterogeneity of soil characteristics. Riparian zones function for most of the analyzed parameters as buffers between the more extreme values of neighbouring land uses. However, this effect does not show for all parameters, for example not for the topsoil- ph-values.

  Keywords: riparian zone, topsoil, heterogeneity, nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, gis, interpolation, map, land use, correlation, europe

  
  

Session Description: This series of three special paper sessions are co-sponsored by the Coastal and Marine Geography (CoMa) and Geomorphology specialty groups. The research presented in the paper sessions cover a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales within aeolian geomorphology.