GIS model-builder based on comprehensive geostatistical approach to assess soil quality

A comprehensive assessment was carried out for the soil quality of Abo-Hammad County, El-Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. In this regard, an integrated approach involving geostatistical, correlation matrix, is used to evaluate selected soil physio-chemical properties. This study is established to identify appropriate indicators for assessing soil quality rapidly and economically. Analytical data were gathered from representative 53 soil profiles covering most neighborhoods of the county. The results show that ordinary cokriging has the best fit for the geostatistical methods. Soils of the high soil quality occupy 35.4% of the county; those of the intermediate quality occupy 38.0%, whereas; those of the low soil quality occupy 26.6%. In the case of soil physiochemical properties, the largest part of the soils has medium to large values of these parameters. The largest part of the analyzed soil samples are characterized by low values in term of soil biological properties. This study indicated a relatively high variability in soil properties showed important in considering some parameters for calculation of soil quality index. The spatial variability patterns of soil properties were identified and mapped. The results demonstrated that management of soil practices should be carefully associated with soil texture. Based on the comparison of soil quality of soil data 2015 and soil data 1995, was found a deterioration of soil quality. Soil productiveness may affected by intensive agriculture practices and mismanagement. This study may enhance knowledge regarding soil agricultural practices in the study area and introduce a better technique to analyze soil quality index by multivariate geostatistical methods.