Procedures and Benefits of an Integrated Soil Mapping System for Directed Soil Sampling

Abstract

There is an increasing need for the development of information systems that can optimize field management by leveraging the information obtained from the huge volume of data related to spatial variation within agricultural fields. To that end, an integrated soil mapping system for directed soil sampling is presented in this paper. The system architecture is analysed, highlighting the interactions between the individual subsystems toward capturing their internal structure. The final product constitutes a useful and effective tool for supporting field management as a result of in-depth study using state-of-the-art sensors, data fusion and decision-making algorithms. The benefits of using such a system are multifold including: (a) Optimization of the application of inputs on the farm; b) Reduction of the environmental footprint of agricultural practices; c) Increase of the economic benefit from the cultivation. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)