Spatial Delineation of Organic Carbon Rich Colluvial Soils in Chernozem Regions by Terrain Analysis and Fuzzy Classification

Colluvial soils are considered to be one of the direct results of accelerated soil erosion, resulting in accumulation of humus-rich soil material in terrain depressions and base parts of slope. Their specificity consists in very deep humus horizon which makes them a vast storage of organic carbon. Mapping of the colluvial soils and their spatial extent prediction therefore represent an important contribution in total carbon stock estimation. A method of delineation of colluvial soil area was proposed by applying a combination of high resolution DTM analysis and detailed field survey in the environment of Chernozem soil cover. Two models based on fuzzy classification of soil units were created using different terrain morphometrical features as the only input parameters to predict the colluvial soil area on a morphologically diversified study plot in the Southern Moravia, Czech Republic. The model considering only the terrain properties with strong relationship to colluvial soil occurrence reached 71% accuracy in colluvial area delineation, while the model combining six commonly used features showed less favorable results. The main advantage of the method lies in a low demand of input soil data and its relatively high accuracy.JRC.H.7-Climate Risk Managemen