Statistical Methods in Soil and Land Resource Survey (Spatial Information Systems)

This book describes suitable statistical methods for analyzing variation in soil and for relating the soil to its environment. Sound land planning increasingly needs such quantitative information and decisions have been made against a background of variation in soil and other land resources. The authors stress sound sampling technique and show how to use the results for estimation, prediction, and efficient design. They show how classification can enhance the utility of survey data and lead to economies in sampling. Optimal methods for creating classification are described as well as alternative multivariate methods for identifying relations such as principal component and principal co-ordinate analysis. This is essentially a second edition of Dr Webster's book "Quantitative and Numerical Methods in Soil Classification and Survey". In this edition the topic of regression is tackled from the viewpoints of both statistics and natural science. There are three new chapters devoted to geostatistics which introduce regional modelling, kriging, and isarithmic mapping. However, as in the first edition, the accent throughout is on fully quantitative survey of land resources, of measurement, and of estimation. The more advanced techniques are liberally illustrated with simple diagrams.