Soil resource mapping using IRS-1A-LISS II digital data—A case study of Kandi area adjacent to Chandigarh-India

Abstract

Soil survey provides information on soils, their spatial distribution and their areal extent for proper land use planning and agro-technology transfer. Remote sensing has emerged as a potential modern tool which can be utilised as a cost elfmtive means of small-scale soil mapping. In the present study, different soilwape units (physiography~um-soil association units) were identified following a supervised classification based on a maximum likelihood classifier using IRS (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) IA-LISS-I1 digital data. Six soilscape units, namely hills, valleys, moderate and severe eroded piedmonts, alluvial plain and river terraces were identified and delineated digitally. The overall classification accuracy of the digital soil map is 92 per cent. Major soils (subgroup levels) encountered in various soilscape units are-Typic/Lithic Ustorthents: Typic/Udic Ustochrepts; Typic Haplustalfs; Typic Ustipsamments and Typic Ustifluvents.l'hc ~e d o g e~l l c clues for the &ielupm;nl of these soils w&c also rormul~lcd based on the phys~ography and the morphological and phys~so-chemical charatteristics of soils

Identifying opportunities to improve digital soil mapping in India: A systematic review

“…Before the 1980s, Indian soil survey systems remained confined to field and laboratory based methods rarely being associated with photointerpretation of aerial photographs (Sharma & Kalia, 1987). Subsequently, digital satellite imageries such as LANDSAT TM (Manchanda and Hilwig, 1981), IRS-1A LISS II (Kudrat et al, 1992), and IRS-1C/1D LISS-III were used to delineate physiographic boundaries of small cartographic scale soil resource maps (Manchanda et al, 2002). Attempts were also made to map salt-affected soils, waterlogged areas, and degraded lands (Dwivedi and Sreenivas, 1998).…”

Soil resource assessment and mapping using remote sensing and GIS

“…The dynamic inter-relationship between physiography and soils is utilized while deriving information on soils from satellite data (Kudrat et al, 1992). The factors involved in physiographic processes more or less correspond to the factors of soil formation.…”

Soil erosion and soil problems

“…In this way more detailed observation may indicate trends. Other recent examples of largescale degradation and soil resource surveys can be found in India (Gurmel Singh et al, 1992;Kudrat et al, 1992) and semi-arid China (Li and Xiao, 1992).…”