Mobilized Surveying of Soil Conductivity Using Electromagnetic Induction

• Published in: Applied engineering in agriculture Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 121 - 126
• Main Authors: Freeland, R.S, Yoder, R.E, Ammons, J.T, Leonard, L.L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: computer software; data collection; geographic information systems; global positioning systems; scientists; soil; soil surveys; spatial data
• ISSN: 0883-8542; 1943-7838
• DOI: 10.13031/2013.7701

Established and emerging geophysical technologies offer many promising applications for precise near-surface surveying. Scientists are investigating these non-invasive surveying techniques to enhance soil mapping and research. A non-invasive soil surveying system was developed to rapidly map soil characteristics. This system employs an all-terrain utility vehicle towing a nonmetallic carriage that cradles a commercially available ground conductivity meter. Autonomous data streams of time-stamped soil conductivity data and global positioning system (GPS) data are immediately downloaded to a computer after a survey. Both data sets are automatically merged using the time stamp data as an index. Using geographical information software (GIS), conductivity maps of increased data density are produced on-site. The mobile surveying system increased total conductivity sampling rate by a factor of >100, and increased data density by a factor of >10 over a conventional manual survey method when operating over a 1-ha open test site. For open fields that can be easily traversed with a utility vehicle, the mobile surveying system was found to greatly enhance data quality by increasing data density, and to dramatically increase both data acquisition efficiency and data post-processing speeds.