Calibration and validation of a soil-landscape model for predicting soil drainage class

A statistical model was developed that relates soil drainage classes to eight landscape parameters describing slope morphology, proximity to surface drainage features, and soil parent material. Soil profiles and landscape parameters were described at 305 randomly selected sampling points within the Mifflintown 7.5-min topographic quadrangle in central Pennsylvania. Variables defining the spatial structure of the landscape were derived from digitized maps and the data were stored in a geographic information system. These soil-landscape combinations were used to derive a statistical soil-landscape model using multivariate discriminant analysis and class frequency information. The model correctly predicted a majority of the observations within each drainage class and provided a consistent method of extrapolating point information about soils to the three-dimensional landscape. -from Authors