1 Romanian Academy, Department of Iaşi, Geography Group, 8 Carol I, 700505, Iaşi (Romania) 2 Faculty of Biology, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, 20A Carol I, 700505, Iaşi, (Romania) 3 Faculty of Geography and Geology, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, 20A Carol I, 700505, Iaşi,
(Romania)
DOI:
10.4316/GEOREVIEW.2012.21.1.54
Pages:
46 - 55
Abstract:
The present study attempts to test the performance of two
statistical approaches, namely the binary logistic regression and fuzzy
techniques for spatial prediction of soil types. The study area is Dobrovăţ
basin, located in NE Romania, within the Central Moldavian Plateau. The
input parameters are the digital elevation model, slope, topographic
wetness index, mean annual temperatures and precipitations. The
logistic regression approach proved successful in estimating the spatial
probabilities of Aluviosols, Chernozems, Preluvosols and Luvosols and
generally failed in predicting the locations of Phaeozems. The fuzzy
approach, implemented through SoLIM software, proved successful in
predicting the occurrences of Aluviosols and Luvisols. On the whole, both
methods managed to assign the same soil type as in the soil survey map
for 55-56% of the basin. Though it is clear that the approaches need to
be further improved, they do present, in the authors opinion, potential
for the purpose of predicting soil qualitative variables.
Keywords:
statistical methods, SoLIM, spatial probability, soil types, Romania