Digital Terrain Model Derivatives Analysis with the Aim of Identifying Specific Soil Types in Young Post-Glacial Topography with a Vector Approach

Małgorzata Radło-Kulisiewicz

doi:10.17951/pjss.2021.54.1.123-138

Abstract

This article discusses a study conducted in order to analyse selected Digital Terrain Model (DTM) derivates in diverse young post-glacial topographic profiles with the aim of identifying terrain features that could be related to the soils that formed there. The area under investigation is within the reach of the youngest Vistulian Glaciation, in the north-east of Poland. The main goal of the study was to reveal indirect relationships between a lithological soil type and terrain forms, which transpire from DTM derivatives. This can directly help to assign the type of soil in the area to one of the three soil types: a) made of sand, b) made of loam, c) wet-soils. The starting point for the research undertaken was the landscape approach to soil modelling and the article deals with medium scales. Derivatives were analysed using vector data notation, focusing on selected derivative values and their spatial location in relation to one another. The results obtained indicate the possibility of using this approach as an auxiliary approach in soil mapping of areas for which the quality of source materials (such as precipitation geometry) is low. Thus, they can be of assistance in improving the existing soil maps of selected scales. The trend revealed in the obtained results of DTM analysis can be considered as a contribution to realisation of assumptions of a study in digital soil mapping with the use of selected methods of AI.

Highlights

In geological and geomorphological respect, the area of Poland is diversified
DTM derivatives were examined considering the occurrence of three types of soil characteristic of such conditions: soils made of sand, soils made of loam and wet-soils
The two overlapping end-results of transformations: soils made of loam and wet-soils or soils made of sand and wet-soils or the third combination – soils made of loam and soils made of sand are correct from the geological subsoil point of view, because in a situation where there is no clear borderline between geological forms, there appears the problem of a diffused border and transitional forms

Summary

Introduction

In geological and geomorphological respect, the area of Poland is diversified This diversified topography plays a great and exceptional role in soil forming (Miklaszewski 1901, Jenny 1941, Białousz 1969, Gerrard 1992, Deumlich 2010). Primary attributes are values computed directly from DTM, while secondary attributes ( called “compound attributes”) include combinations of basic features being the basis for characterisation of spatial diversification variability of the processes occurring in the given terrain. These solutions found its way into soil science in the 1990s, as they model selected soil characteristics with the use of selected terrain parameters (Table 1), with a large spectrum of field resolution.

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