Publication Date

2000

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Geography

LCSH

Soil mapping--Illinois--De Kalb County; Soils--Illinois--De Kalb County--Classification--Maps; Soil surveys--Illinois--De Kalb County

Abstract

The United States Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service soil surveys are the main sources that help determine the type of soils that are in a field, their productivity, and their price value for taxing purposes. Current soil maps are choropleth maps that contain soil polygons placed over an aerial photograph. These maps have been carefully drawn out to best represent the types of soil present in the area. Once the soil is classified, it is then represented by a polygon that correlates with its position in the field relative to other known locations. Users often assume that these polygons are homogeneous, when they really are not. Soil is a continuous phenomenon that gradually changes over space, not abruptly as portrayed on the present soil maps. In order to portray such an outcome, the idea of a fuzzy soil map has been suggested. Crisp classification observations fall into only one class, "yes" or "no". Fuzzy classification allows a soil sample to have membership in more than one class at a time, with membership declining gradually over space. The end result is a more complex map, but one that describes soil units as non-homogenous units by their highest membership value. This research reports on the application of fuzzy classification using a fuzzy - k - means algorithm to generate the membership values. There were 892 observations sampled from a local grain production farm in DeKalb County, IL. At each location the elevation, aspect, gradient, and plan and profile curvature were measured. Each observation's geographic coordinates were also recorded at that time. The maps generated produced an extremely high amount of variability. It is suggested that this high variability is due to the large scale that was used to produce the maps and that a smaller scale should be used in future research to gain a useful soil management map.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references (pages [52]-53)

Extent

viii, 53 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

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Text

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