Prediction of soil properties with spectroradiometric measurements

Vis-NIR spectroscopy for soil has gained relevance among the development of soil technique analysis. Itatiaia National Park (INP) located at the Southern border of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states, has a fundamental role for water storage and distribution in the surrounded watersheds. INP is also one of the best exemplars of soil carbon stocks in the tropical regions. The purpose of this study was to test the Random Forest Algorithm for soil properties prediction. The spectral readings were done on 116 soil samples, in a completely dark room laboratory. Results show that the R reached 0.57 for Hydrogen. Random Forest model created a rank of importance for the variables used in the prediction, in this stroke within this soil samples, the most important wavelength band was 2165 nm among others. The homogeneity and the limited number of samples suggest a disadvantage of the prediction models.