Fuzzy Soil Layer, Profile and Suitability Classification in the Lower Manoi Valley, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

The lower Namoi valley study area is located in northern New South Wales, Australia, and is principally defined by the Edgeroi 1:50,000 topographic map sheet. The primary data set includes 210 soil profile sites arranged on an equilateral triangular grid with approximately 2.8km between sites. An additional 17 profiles located on the University of Sydney’s I.A. Watson Wheat Research Centre were also included for soil classification. Fuzzy or continuous classification was used to classify the soil in an attempt to better represent the soil continuum. Three seperate classifications are discussed. The first uses soil sample layers and fuzzy k-means algorithms. The second classification identifies similar soil layer sequences within soil profile classes. The third classifcation uses point information at each profile site in a land suitability evaluation made fuzzy by a simple function that converts the final suitability score, between the two classes of suitable and non-suitable. The provision of continuous class maps for soil horizons, profiles and suitabilities extends the concept of ‘farming by soil’ to one of ‘continuous soil husbandry’.KeywordsLand EvaluationLand UtilisationSuitability ClassificationLand Suitability EvaluationSeperate ClassificationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.