APPLICATION OF DIGITA L REMOTE SENSING AND LIMITED GIS CAPABILITY FOR SOIL CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT

An integrated approach has been followed to asses the Capability of Remote Sensing and GIS for soil type identification and analysis. The project site covers an area of about 6254 km2 in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, particularly the region around Lake Ziway. The activities undertaken by the project include collection and organization of remote sensing data, collection of soil samples from selected sites and laboratory analysis of about 15 samples for various soil characterization parameters such as PH, electrical conductivity, chemical composition, cation exchange capability, etc.

The results of field observations and laboratory analyses have enabled the determination of various soil textures such as loam, clay loam, silt, silt loam, sand, sand loam, for each sample horizon. Moreover, the physical and chemical properties of the samples defined on the field and in the lab have enabled labeling the soils into their respective nomenclature after FAO which is then used to perform digital training area selection and classification. The resultant product yielded a thematic map of soils with fourteen classes.

Although signatures of soil types on imageries are not readily identified and recorded since the overlying surface features obscure their nature, ground truthing along with other factors like the distribution of cover types and geological aspects together with the land form have reasonably assisted the definition of the extent of a given soil type.

Note: The report of the project does not include an abstract. The abstract was written by the Department of Mines, Water and Energy, ESTC because the principal investigator is residing outside Ethiopia. The report is available at the Central Technical Library of the ESTC.

(Report 1997)

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