scholarly journals Fuzzy Logic Expert System for Classifying Solonchaks of Algeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Samir Hadj Miloud ◽  
Kaddour Djili ◽  
Mohamed Benidir

Under arid and semiarid regions of the North of Africa, the soils considered as Solonchaks contain both calcium carbonate and gypsum. When these elements are presented at high quantities, these Solonchaks are getting close to Calcisol or Gypsisol. The World Reference Base (WRB) for soil classification does not take into account the soil as a continuum. Instead, this international soil system classification is based on threshold values that define hierarchical diagnostic criteria. Consequently, the distinction between Solonchaks, Calcisol, and Gypsisol is still not clear. To avoid this situation, fuzzy logic based on the Mamdani inference system (MFIS) was used to determine to what extent soil classified as Solonchak in WRB can interfere with Calcisols and Gypsisols. For that purpose, membership values of Solonchaks (Is), Calcisols (Ic), and Gypsisols (Ig) indices were calculated from 194 soil profiles previously classified as Solonchak in WRB. Data analyses revealed that Solonchaks soils were subdivided into Solonchaks (61%), Calcisols (1%), Gypsisols (0.5%), Solonchaks-Calcisols intergrades (29%), Solonchaks-Gypsisols intergrades (5%), and Solonchaks-Calcisols-Gypsisols intergrades (2%). Moreover, Is, Ic, and Ig showed high significant correlations with almost all WRB diagnostic criteria (P<0.05). Under our study, soil classification obtained by employing MFIS was analogous to that provided by WRB; however, MFIS exhibited high precision concerning the membership value between soils and their intergrades. Therefore, the application of MFIS for other soil classifications in the world is possible and could lead to improvement in conventional soil classification.

Author(s):  
Samir Hadj-Miloud ◽  
Kaddour Djili

Background: The main objective of this research is to apply fuzzy logic to four Solonchaks, in order to determine their degree of remoteness or rapprochement with their central taxonomic concept. Therefore, we identify their possible seasonal taxonomic variation on the criteria established by World Reference Base (WRB). Methods: We have studied the seasonal evolution of salinity in a region of Algeria (Case of Rélizane), during two years 2012 and 2013 by applying fuzzy logic on the four soils. Result: The results reveal that the salinity increased during the dry period for all soils and it decreased during the wet period. On the taxonomic level, the application of fuzzy logic on the four soils revealed that the Solonchaks indices (Is) are always significantly higher than those of Calcisols indices (Ic). The four profiles have a similar behavior regarding the variation of Is. Indeed, when the salinity increases the soils come closer to the central taxonomic concept of the Solonchaks. Likewise, when the salinity decreases the soils move away from their central taxonomic concept. Consequently, they approach the central taxonomic concept of Calcisols. Thus, the variation of Isis closely related to the seasonal variation of salinity. Fuzzy logic, exhibited high precision concerning the membership value between soils over time. The application of fuzzy logic for other soil classifications in the world is possible.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra A. Nikiforova ◽  
Maria E. Fleis

Abstract The paper addresses issues related to the application of the General Theory of Classification in the development of a universal soil classification system. The requirements for such a system, a comparison of different approaches to its development, and obstacles on the way to it are outlined. Additionally, the problem of the definition of soils and the importance of distinguishing between differentiating and diagnostic criteria are discussed. It is shown that, from the perspective of the General Theory of Classification, a universal soil classification system should be natural, genetic, “fundamental-and-specific”, and hierarchical. It is concluded that the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) does not meet these requirements and therefore cannot be considered as universal. Ways of addressing the problems of a universal soil classification system are suggested.


1878 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Birds

In the most extended view, the Channel Islands may be regarded as fragments and relics of the Eastern or European coast of the Atlantic, reckoning from the North Cape to Cape St. Vincent, and including the Western shores of Scotland and Ireland, and the promontories of Pembrokeshire and Cornwall. They are excellent illustrations, says Professor Ansted, “of those spurs and tongues of porphyritic rock, of which almost all the promontories of the Atlantic coast of Europe consist.” Very small and insignificant specks indeed they seem in such a length of coast, stretching from lat. 37° to 72°, or upwards of 2000 miles; but there is a charm in such wide horizons, and it is a very allowable indulgence so to connect the little with the great, and to consider the position of such little specks in relation to the geography of Europe; one might almost as well say, of the world at large.


Author(s):  
Jan Zalasiewicz ◽  
Mark Williams

The frozen lands of the north are an unforgiving place for humans to live. The Inuit view of the cosmos is that it is ruled by no one, with no gods to create wind and sun and ice, or to provide punishment or forgiveness, or to act as Earth Mother or Father. Amid those harsh landscapes, belief is superfluous, and only fear can be relied on as a guide. How could such a world begin, and end? In Nordic mythology, in ancient times there used to be a yet greater kingdom of ice, ruled by the ice giant, Ymir Aurgelmir. To make a world fit for humans, Ymir was killed by three brothers—Odin, Vilje, and Ve. The blood of the dying giant drowned his own children, and formed the seas, while the body of the dead giant became the land. To keep out other ice giants that yet lived in the far north, Odin and his brothers made a wall out of Ymir’s eyebrows. One may see, fancifully, those eyebrows still, in the form of the massive, curved lines of morainic hills that run across Sweden and Finland. We now have a popular image of Ymir’s domain—the past ‘Ice Age’—as snowy landscapes of a recent past, populated by mammoths and woolly rhinos and fur-clad humans (who would have been beginning to create such legends to explain the precarious world on which they lived). This image, as we have seen, represents a peculiarly northern perspective. The current ice age is geologically ancient, for the bulk of the world’s land-ice had already grown to cover almost all Antarctica, more than thirty million years ago. Nevertheless, a mere two and a half million years ago, there was a significant transition in Earth history—an intensification of the Earth’s icehouse state that spread more or less permanent ice widely across the northern polar regions of the world. This intensification— via those fiendishly complex teleconnections that characterize the Earth system—changed the face of the entire globe. The changes can be detected in the sedimentary strata that were then being deposited around the world.


Soil Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Morand

Few soil surveys in New South Wales have utilised international soil classifications. Extensive morphological and laboratory data collected during soil surveys in the Northern Rivers region provided a strong basis for correlation with the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), Soil Taxonomy (ST), and the Australian Soil Classification (ASC). Of the 32 reference soil groups comprising the WRB, 20 were present locally; nine of the 12 ST orders were present. After re-classification of soils, correlation of the ASC with the WRB and ST was undertaken. Soils not requiring extensive laboratory analysis for classification and sharing similar central concepts were the more straightforward to correlate. Several ASC orders have unique central concepts and were therefore difficult to correlate with any one WRB reference soil group or ST order/suborder. Other soils were difficult to correlate due to differences in definitions of similar diagnostic criteria. This is most applicable to soils with strong texture-contrast and those with natric conditions. Such soils are not adequately differentiated to suit the Northern Rivers conditions. Of the two international schemes, the WRB was easier to apply locally due to the relative simplicity of the scheme. Considering certain aspects of Australian soils would improve the applicability of the WRB as a truly international framework for soil classification and correlation. Amendments to both the ASC and WRB are suggested.


1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 113-129
Author(s):  
K.K.S. Dadzie

The Trade and Development Report of 1992 had predicted that without a strong boost to global demand the world economy v.�ould continue to stagnate. So it has. Belying almost all other official forecasts, the North has failed to recover. As a result, commodity prices are falling yet again, intensifying poverty in the South, and the unemployed are multiplying, intensifying poverty in the North. Joblessness is now not only the prime issue in domestic politics: by providing humus for protectionist sentiments and xenophobia, it is also forcing itself onto the international agenda. The tide of market-oriented reform has continued to flow strongly in developing countries and the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. In Asia, the fast-growing economies, which had managed to steer clear of the turbulence of debt and policy shocks, have continued ahead at full steam. Thanks to reform, Latin America has been showered with finance. In Africa, the winds of change have turned into a gale, but the economies are still in the doldrums. In the transition economies of Europe, the worst is over in some hut not in others. International financial flows have been bringing many benefits but also problems. Exchange rates have been under severe strain, and international trade negotiations have been teetering bern�een openness and protectionism. The new era after the Cold War should not be allowed to become one of economic conflict. Governments acknowledge the need for cooperation, but the real challenge remains. It is to translate the aspiration for harmony into practice-and do so in a way that will advance development and push back poverty The right approach is to marry boldness with realism. Without boldness structures will not change, but unless policies are tempered with realism there will be costly excesses. Boldness is also required to clear the debt overhang, which continues to bear down on 1nany developing countries. And unless there is boldness, too, infighting global deflation, the problems of the world economy will further multiply, and instability will overwhelm confidence.


Author(s):  
Shilpa Kumar ◽  
Shubangi D C

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break. Osteoporosis can progress painlessly until it causes a bone fracture or a bone break. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) is more costly and not accessible easily so we are using Fuzzy Inference system to predict osteoporosis. In this fuzzy logic, we collect risk factors and rules for osteoporosis and build a interface which take inputs and predicts if a person has osteoporosis. In the following Literature survey, we will take risk factors, rules, and ways to implement them. Around the world, 33% of women and 20% men over the age of 50 will suffer a fracture caused by Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a disease in which Bones become shallow and are fractured. If predicted before, quality of life will increase and severe surgery may be avoided.


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