Integrating proximal geophysical sensing and machine learning for digital soil mapping: Spatial prediction and model evaluation using a small dataset

Abstract

Geophysical methods support soil security by providing non-invasive tools to assess soil properties, monitor degradation, and guide sustainable management strategies. However, studies focusing the spatial prediction of geophysical data remain limited. In this research, we aimed to model and predict the spatial distribution of soil geophysical properties using parent material and terrain attributes with machine learning algorithms. In addition, we tested the nested leave-one-out cross validation (nested-LOOCV) method to deal with datasets with limited size. We performed a geophysical survey using three types of sensors (radiometric, magnetic and electric methods). The random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms presented the best results, with RF showing higher performance for K40 and magnetic susceptibility, and SVM had higher performance for eU, eTh and apparent electrical conductivity. Parent materials and digital elevation model were the most significant variables for the modelling. The nested-LOOCV method proved to be adequate for small soil dataset. Machine learning techniques are potential tools for modelling soil geophysical variables. The combination with computational techniques shows the great relevance of geophysical measurements for the estimation of soil properties related to fertility and soil genesis.