SOME GEOCHEMICAL FEATURES OF SOILS IN THE JARGALANT REGION IN WESTERN MONGOLIA

The article examines the patterns of distribution and basic characteristics of the main soil types, reveals the geochemical structure of soils of the arid territory in the central part of the Great Lakes Basin, for example, the region of the DJargalant mountain based on the fundamental theoretical foundations of world soil geography and soil geochemistry. The establishment on this basis of the features of structures within the high mountain, low mountain landscapes and landscapes of the lakeside plain.

Soil Mapping Based on Globally Optimal Decision Trees and Digital Imitations of Traditional Approaches

Most digital soil mapping (DSM) approaches aim at complete statistical model extraction. The value of the explicit rules of soil delineation formulated by soil-mapping experts is often underestimated. These rules can be used for expert testing of the notional consistency of soil maps, soil trend prediction, soil geography investigations, and other applications. We propose an approach that imitates traditional soil mapping by constructing compact globally optimal decision trees (EVTREE) for the covariates of traditionally used soil formation factor maps. We evaluated our approach by regional-scale soil mapping at a test site in the Belgorod region of Russia. The notional consistency and compactness of the decision trees created by EVTREE were found to be suitable for expert-based analysis and improvement. With a large sample set, the accuracy of the predictions was slightly lower for EVTREE (59%) than for CART (67%) and much lower than for Random Forest (87%). With smaller sample sets of 1785 and 1000 points, EVTREE produced comparable or more accurate predictions and much more accurate models of soil geography than CART or Random Forest.

Ragam Konteks Skala Dalam Perspektif Kajian Sumberdaya Lahan

<p class="Paragraf"><strong>Abstrak. </strong>Kini isu ‘skala’ menjadi penting kembali dibahas oleh komunitas sumberdaya lahan. Awalnya sumberdaya lahan terbatas dikaji oleh disiplin ilmu tanah, ilmu geografi, dan ilmu kartografi, tetapi sekarang berkembang dikaji oleh disiplin ilmu lingkungan, ilmu iklim, ilmu statistik, serta ilmu teknologi dan informasi. Kajian sumberdaya lahan yang awalnya untuk kepentingan ilmu pertanian kini menghadapi problem yang lebih luas seperti perubahan iklim, krisis energi, keanekaragaman hayati, keseimbangan ekosistem, hingga perkembangan kota. Pada era ini perjumpaan ilmu tanah dengan disiplin ilmu lain tidak dapat dihindarkan karena telah menjadi keniscayaan untuk melayani kepentingan umat manusia yang lebih luas. Berkaitan dengan itu istilah ‘skala’ yang digunakan pada disiplin ilmu tanah, ilmu geografi, dan ilmu kartografi seringkali membingungkan ketika berjumpa dengan istilah ‘skala’ pada kajian sumberdaya lahan kontemporer. Skala dapat dipahami dalam beragam konteks: 1) skala informasi pada peta, 2) skala level pada berbagai proses, dan 3) skala pada angka pengukuran. Tiga konteks skala tersebut belum termasuk skala pada dimensi lain yaitu skala waktu yang tidak akan dibahas pada artikel ini.</p><p class="Paragraf"> </p><p class="JSDLAbstrak"><strong>Abstract. </strong><em>At present the issue of 'scale' becomes important to be rediscussed by scientists in land resources community. Initially, land resources were </em><em>only </em><em>studied by the limited disciplines, such as soil science, geography, and cartography, but now it is studied by the disciplines of environmental science, climate science, statistics, and technology and information science.</em><em> </em><em> At the beginning, the study of land resources was to support agricultural science, but at the present the study is to addresss broader problems such as climate change, energy crises, biodiversity, ecosystem balance, and urban development. In this era, the encounter of soil science with other scientific disciplines is inevitable because it has become a necessity to serve the broader of humanity interest. Related to that issue, the term of 'scale' used in the disciplines of soil, geography and cartography is often confusing when meeting to other different disciplines. There are at least 3 different contexts that use the term 'scale' in contemporary land resource studies</em><em> i.e : </em><em>1) scale of information on maps, 2) scale of levels in various processes, and 3) scale of measurement numbers. The</em><em>se</em><em> three contexts of scale are not included scale of time </em><em>another dimensions </em><em>that will not be discussed in this article.</em></p>

Progress in soil geography I: Reinvigoration

The geography of soil is more important today than ever before. Models of environmental systems and myriad direct field applications depend on accurate information about soil properties and their spatial distribution. Many of these applications play a critical role in managing and preparing for issues of food security, water supply, and climate change. The capability to deliver soil maps with the accuracy and resolution needed by land use planning, precision agriculture, as well as hydrologic and meteorologic models is, fortunately, on the horizon due to advances in the geospatial revolution. Digital soil mapping, which utilizes spatial statistics and data provided by modern geospatial technologies, has now become an established area of study for soil scientists. Over 100 articles on digital soil mapping were published in 2018. The first and second generations of soil mapping thrived from collaborations between Earth scientists and geographers. As we enter the dawn of the third generation of soil maps, those collaborations remain essential. To that end, we review the historical connections between soil science and geography, examine the recent disconnect between those disciplines, and draw attention to opportunities for the reinvigoration of the long-standing field of soil geography. Finally, we emphasize the importance of this reinvigoration to geographers.