Proximal Soil Sensing and Sensor Fusion for Soil Health Assessment.

Assessment of soil health involves determining how well a soil is performing its biological, chemical, and physical functions relative to its inherent potential. Due to high costs, labor requirements, and soil disturbance, traditional laboratory analyses cannot provide high resolution soil health data. Therefore, sensor-based approaches are important to facilitate cost-effective, site-specific management for soil health. While past research has shown potential for sensor estimation of important soil health indicators, others have not been well-estimated with data from a single proximal sensor. Additional information may be obtained with a sensor fusion approach, whereby measurements from multiple sensors are combined. This presentation will review a number of proximal sensing technologies that may be useful for generating soil health information, outlining their advantages and limitations. Data processing and calibration methods for improving spatial resolution and estimation accuracy will be discussed. The sensor fusion approach will be illustrated for soil properties pertinent to soil health assessment.