Evaluating the Potentials of PLSR and SVR Models for Soil Properties Prediction Using Field Imaging,Laboratory VNIR Spectroscopy and Their Combination

Pedo-spectroscopy has the potential to provide valuable information about soil physical,chemical,and biological properties.Nowadays,wemay predict soil properties usingVNIRfield imaging spectra(IS)such as Prisma satellite data or laboratory spectra(LS).The primary goal of this study is to investigate machine learning models namely Partial Least Squares Regression(PLSR)and Support Vector Regression(SVR)for the prediction of several soil properties,including clay,sand,silt,organic matter,nitrate NO3-,and calcium carbonate CaCO_(3),using five VNIR spectra dataset combinations(%IS,%LS)as follows:C1(0%IS,100%LS),C2(20%IS,80%LS),C3(50%IS,50%LS),C4(80%IS,20%LS)and C5(100%IS,0%LS).Soil samples were collected at bare soils and at the upper(0–30 cm)layer.The data set has been split into a training dataset 80%of the collected data(n=248)and a validation dataset 20%of the collected data(n=61).The proposed PLSR and SVR models were trained then tested for each dataset combination.According to our results,SVR outperforms PLSR for both:C1(0%IS,100%LS)and C5(100%IS,0%LS).For Soil Organic Matter(SOM)prediction,it achieves(R^(2)=0.79%,RMSE=1.42%)and(R^(2)=0.76%,RMSE=1.3%),respectively.The data fusion has improved the soil property prediction.The highest improvement was obtained for the SOM property(R^(2)=0.80%,RMSE=1.39)when using the SVR model and applying the second Combination C2(20% of IS and 80%LS).

Hyperspectral Analysis for a Robust Assessment of Soil Properties Using Adapted PLSR Method

Near-InfraRed and Visible (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy is a promising tool allowing to quantify soil properties. It shows that information encoded in hyperspectral data can be useful after signal processing and model calibration steps, in order to estimate various soil properties throughout appropriate statistical models. However, one of the problems encountered in the case of hyperspectral data is related to information redundancy between different spectral bands. This redundancy is at the origin of multi-collinearity in the explanatory variables leading to unstable regression coefficients (and, difficult to interpret). Moreover, in hyperspectral spectrum, the information concerning the chemical specificity is spread over several wavelengths. Therefore, it is not wise to remove this redundancy because this removal affects both relevant and irrelevant hyperspectral information. In this study, the faced challenge is to optimize the estimation of some soil properties by exploiting all the spectral richness of the hyperspectral data by providing complementary rather than redundant information. To this end, a new reliable approach based on hyperspectral data analysis and partial least squares regression is proposed.