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POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States

Publication ,  Journal Article
Chaney, NW; Wood, EF; McBratney, AB; Hempel, JW; Nauman, TW; Brungard, CW; Odgers, NP
Published in: Geoderma
July 15, 2016

A new complete map of soil series probabilities has been produced for the contiguous United States at a 30 m spatial resolution. This innovative database, named POLARIS, is constructed using available high-resolution geospatial environmental data and a state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm (DSMART-HPC) to remap the Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database. This 9 billion grid cell database is possible using available high performance computing resources. POLARIS provides a spatially continuous, internally consistent, quantitative prediction of soil series. It offers potential solutions to the primary weaknesses in SSURGO: 1) unmapped areas are gap-filled using survey data from the surrounding regions, 2) the artificial discontinuities at political boundaries are removed, and 3) the use of high resolution environmental covariate data leads to a spatial disaggregation of the coarse polygons. The geospatial environmental covariates that have the largest role in assembling POLARIS over the contiguous United States (CONUS) are fine-scale (30 m) elevation data and coarse-scale (~. 2 km) estimates of the geographic distribution of uranium, thorium, and potassium. A preliminary validation of POLARIS using the NRCS National Soil Information System (NASIS) database shows variable performance over CONUS. In general, the best performance is obtained at grid cells where DSMART-HPC is most able to reduce the chance of misclassification. The important role of environmental covariates in limiting prediction uncertainty suggests including additional covariates is pivotal to improving POLARIS' accuracy. This database has the potential to improve the modeling of biogeochemical, water, and energy cycles in environmental models; enhance availability of data for precision agriculture; and assist hydrologic monitoring and forecasting to ensure food and water security.

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Published In

Geoderma

DOI

ISSN

0016-7061

Publication Date

July 15, 2016

Volume

274

Start / End Page

54 / 67

Related Subject Headings

  • Agronomy & Agriculture
  • 4106 Soil sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences
 

Citation

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Chaney, N. W., Wood, E. F., McBratney, A. B., Hempel, J. W., Nauman, T. W., Brungard, C. W., & Odgers, N. P. (2016). POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States. Geoderma, 274, 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.03.025
Chaney, N. W., E. F. Wood, A. B. McBratney, J. W. Hempel, T. W. Nauman, C. W. Brungard, and N. P. Odgers. “POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States.” Geoderma 274 (July 15, 2016): 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.03.025.
Chaney NW, Wood EF, McBratney AB, Hempel JW, Nauman TW, Brungard CW, et al. POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States. Geoderma. 2016 Jul 15;274:54–67.
Chaney, N. W., et al. “POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States.” Geoderma, vol. 274, July 2016, pp. 54–67. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.03.025.
Chaney NW, Wood EF, McBratney AB, Hempel JW, Nauman TW, Brungard CW, Odgers NP. POLARIS: A 30-meter probabilistic soil series map of the contiguous United States. Geoderma. 2016 Jul 15;274:54–67.
Journal cover image

Published In

Geoderma

DOI

ISSN

0016-7061

Publication Date

July 15, 2016

Volume

274

Start / End Page

54 / 67

Related Subject Headings

  • Agronomy & Agriculture
  • 4106 Soil sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences