Land Evaluation and Suitability
Sina Bigdeli; Heidar Ghafari; Mojtaba Norouzi Masir; Abdolamir Moezzi
Abstract
Introduction: Today, the concept of soil quality (SQ) has been widely used to know the capacity and limitations of soils in different environmental systems. The degree of suitability of land is determined by its capacity to provide services and its flexibility against external conditions. Production ...
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Introduction: Today, the concept of soil quality (SQ) has been widely used to know the capacity and limitations of soils in different environmental systems. The degree of suitability of land is determined by its capacity to provide services and its flexibility against external conditions. Production of plant biomass is one of the most important functions of soil in relation to food security. The share of dry land in Iran's agricultural production, especially wheat, is very significant. So that in terms of area, about half of the total area of agricultural lands, in terms of volume of production, about 10% of all agricultural products and about 30% of the country's wheat production are related to these lands. Therefore, maintaining the soil quality of these lands is very important. The main goal of this research is to model and quantify the soil quality of part of the rainfed agricultural lands of Dezpart city using integrated multivariate analysis and also to determine the minimum effective data set.Materials and methods: This study was carried out in a part of the rainfed agricultural area of Dezpart County. First, 119 soil samples were prepared using the composite method from the soil depth of 0-30 cm. Soil sampling was done in a stratified random manner to include all the different geomorphological units. The geographic location of the sampling points was also recorded. The samples were transferred to the laboratory and their chemical-fertility and physical characteristics include reaction (pH), electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), total nitrogen, available potassium, absorbable phosphorus, calcium carbonate equivalent (CCE), texture, bulk density, mean weight diameter (MWD) of soil aggregates, soil gravel content and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were measured. Then the soil quality was determined using two datasets of total (TDS) and minimum (MDS), and multivariate analysis method. In this method, by using appropriate scoring functions, a score between zero and one was considered for each member of the data set. Also, a weight coefficient was calculated for each member, and finally, the soil quality index, which indicates its degree of desirability, was obtained by three indices including Nemero (NQI), cumulative weighted index (IQI) and simple cumulative index (AQI). Finally, a spatial variation map of soil quality was prepared using the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method in geographic information system (GIS) software.Results and Discussion: The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) test indicated that there are three main components that cover 78% of the total variance changes. The first component alone accounts for about 41% and the second and third components account for 25% and 12% of the total data variance, respectively. Based on the correlation analysis between soil components and characteristics, five characteristics including organic matter (OM), silt content, gravel, pH and EC were selected as MDS members. Became in the TDS collection, the highest weights related to silt and sand (0.093 and 0.095, respectively) and the lowest weight with 0.050 was assigned to bulk density (BD). In the MDS set, the highest weight was related to organic matter and silt and the lowest weight was related to pH. The soil quality of the region was generally classified as medium based on the two indexes of AQI and WQI. However, the NQI method indicated that the soil quality was low. Among the three selected indices with different functions and data sets, the weighted soil quality index with the minimum data set and nonlinear function (WQI_MDS_NL) was chosen as the superior model due to having a higher sensitivity index (or a larger standard deviation). The spatial soil quality map, which was prepared for this study, showed that approximately 50% of the lands in the region had an average soil quality and 50% had a low soil quality.Conclusion: Organic matter, silt, pH, gravel and EC are the main characteristics to determine the soil quality of the region. In addition, stability of soil aggregates, bulk density and lime are the most important limiting factors of soil quality in the region. Therefore, it is suggested to use appropriate management practices such as conservation tillage and use of organic fertilizers to improve these characteristics.
Soil Physics, Erosion and Conservation
Heidar Ghafari; Hadi Ameri khah
Abstract
Introduction: The processes of soil erosion and sediment transport along rivers are the main causes of some socio-economic and environmental problems, such as a reduction in water quality, storage capacity of dams, destruction of aquatic habitats, failure of hydroelectric power plants, and soil degradation. ...
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Introduction: The processes of soil erosion and sediment transport along rivers are the main causes of some socio-economic and environmental problems, such as a reduction in water quality, storage capacity of dams, destruction of aquatic habitats, failure of hydroelectric power plants, and soil degradation. Therefore, understanding the sedimentation status of watersheds is crucial for the effective management of soil and water resources. However, due to the lack of technical and human resources, continuous recording of sediment data is not possible in most sediment measuring stations, and sediment data are recorded only for a few days. In such a situation, a model that can estimate the amount of sediment load using auxiliary variables such as stream discharge and rainfall becomes crucial. Today, it is believed that techniques based on artificial intelligence have a much greater ability to uncover hidden relationships between variables than classical methods and are thus very useful and effective in modeling natural processes.Materials and Methods: In this study, various machine learning techniques, including Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Adaptive Fuzzy-Neural Inference System (ANFIS), and Random Forest (RF), were used for sediment load modeling and sediment forecast for days without measurements. To achieve the research objectives, long-term meteorological and hydrometric data ranging from 2000 to 2020 were collected from related organizations and pre-processed before entering the model. The input variables for the models included 24-hour rainfall, flow rate, normalized difference vegetation index, maximum and minimum temperature, and daily suspended sediment as the dependent variable. Prior to modeling, the entire dataset was divided into two parts, training and testing, in a 70:30 ratio. Relationship modeling was performed using the training data, and model validation was conducted using the test dataset. The efficiency of the models was evaluated using two indicators, the coefficient of explanation (R2) and the root mean square error (RMSE). Additionally, morphometric parameters such as form factor (FF), drainage density (DF) coefficient, and relief ratio (RR) were utilized in modeling.Results and Dscussion: The hydrological analysis of the basin revealed that the highest annual amount of rainfall and erosivity index were recorded at the Sheyvand station in the east of the basin, while the lowest values were observed at the Ramhormoz station. The highest average monthly flow rate of 5.8 cubic meters per second was obtained at the Manjeniq station in April, and at the Mashin station, the highest average monthly flow rate of 8.8 cubic meters per second was recorded in December and January. Morphometrically, the studied basin belonged to the class of elongated basins, sloping basins in terms of relief, and the medium class in terms of drainage density. Analysis of the time series of NDVI index showed that the highest vegetation cover occurred in March, while the lowest values were recorded in September and October. The annual trend of the vegetation index indicated an overall improvement in vegetation cover in the region from 2000 to 2020, with the NDVI value increasing from 0.15 to 0.22.Among the different machine learning techniques studied, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model had the highest coefficient of explanation (R2=0.87) and the lowest RMSE for both sediment measuring stations in the region, making it the best model. The optimal inputs for the neural network model at Mashin station were daily average flow adjusted by the basin shape factor, daily rainfall, last day's rainfall, daily minimum temperature and daily maximum temperature. For the Manjeniq station, the optimal inputs were daily average flow, daily rainfall, last day's rainfall, cumulative rainfall for the past two days, and cumulative rainfall for the past three days. The NDVI index was removed from the model due to its low significance. The Random Forest (RF) model ranked second, and the Adaptive Fuzzy-Neural Inference System (ANFIS) model ranked third, with weak performance, especially for the Mashin station, where out-of-range errors occurred.Temporal analysis of sediment values showed that the highest sediment production occurred in December and January for Mashin station and in April for Manjeniq station. The highest production of sediment occurred in 2006 and 2002, and the trend of changes from 2011 to 2018 showed a decline, attributed to consecutive droughts and lack of rainfall. The annual average sediment production calculated using the values estimated with the neural network model was 88017 tons, equivalent to 1 ton per hectare per year. Conclusion: Overall, this research demonstrated that machine learning methods, especially the neural network model, are highly effective for modeling and predicting sediment on a daily scale. These methods can compensate for the lack of sediment measuring facilities and equipment in most existing hydrometric stations in the country and eliminate the need for continuous sediment data and other water quality parameters.
