Author Correction: Digital soil mapping including additional point sampling in Posses ecosystem services pilot watershed, southeastern Brazil.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Digital soil mapping including additional point sampling in Posses ecosystem services pilot watershed, southeastern Brazil.

This study aimed to evaluate the performance of three spatial association models used in digital soil mapping and the effects of additional point sampling in a steep-slope watershed (1,200 ha). A soil survey was carried out and 74 soil profiles were analyzed. The tested models were: Multinomial logistic regression (MLR), C5 decision tree (C5-DT) and Random forest (RF). In order to reduce the effects of an imbalanced dataset on the accuracy of the tested models, additional sampling retrieved by photointerpretation was necessary. Accuracy assessment was based on aggregated data from a proportional 5-fold cross-validation procedure. Extrapolation assessment was based on the multivariate environmental similarity surface (MESS). The RF model including additional sampling (RF*) showed the best performance among the tested models (overall accuracy = 49%, kappa index = 0.33). The RF* allowed to link soil mapping units (SMU) and, in the case of less-common soil classes in the watershed, to set specific conditions of occurrence on the space of terrain-attributes. MESS analysis showed reliable outputs for 82.5% of the watershed. SMU distribution across the watershed was: Typic Rhodudult (56%), Typic Hapludult* (13%), Typic Dystrudept (10%), Typic Endoaquent + Fluventic Dystrudept (10%), Typic Hapludult (9.5%) and Rhodic Hapludox + Typic Hapludox (2%).

Hybrid kriging methods for interpolating sparse river bathymetry point data / Métodos híbridos de krigagem para interpolação de levantamentos batimétricos fluviais

ABSTRACT Terrain models that represent riverbed topography are used for analyzing geomorphologic changes, calculating water storage capacity, and making hydrologic simulations. These models are generated by interpolating bathymetry points. River bathymetry is usually surveyed through cross-sections, which may lead to a sparse sampling pattern. Hybrid kriging methods, such as regression kriging (RK) and co-kriging (CK) employ the correlation with auxiliary predictors, as well as inter-variable correlation, to improve the predictions of the target variable. In this study, we use the orthogonal distance of a (x, y) point to the river centerline as a covariate for RK and CK. Given that riverbed elevation variability is abrupt transversely to the flow direction, it is expected that the greater the Euclidean distance of a point to the thalweg, the greater the bed elevation will be. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the use of the proposed covariate improves the spatial prediction of riverbed topography. In order to asses such premise, we perform an external validation. Transversal cross-sections are used to make the spatial predictions, and the point data surveyed between sections are used for testing. We compare the results from CK and RK to the ones obtained from ordinary kriging (OK). The validation indicates that RK yields the lowest RMSE among the interpolators. RK predictions represent the thalweg between cross-sections, whereas the other methods under-predict the river thalweg depth. Therefore, we conclude that RK provides a simple approach for enhancing the quality of the spatial prediction from sparse bathymetry data.

RESUMO Modelos de terreno de rios são usados para análise de mudanças geomorfológicas e para simulações hidrológicas. Estes modelos são interpolados a partir de pontos batimétricos. A batimetria fluvial é geralmente conduzida através de seções transversais, o que pode acarretar em uma malha amostral esparsa. Métodos híbridos de krigagem, como krigagem por regressão (KR) e co-krigagem (CK), empregam a correlação com preditores auxiliares, além da auto-correlação entre variáveis, na predição da variável resposta. Neste estudo, sugere-se que a distância ortogonal de um ponto até a linha de centro do talvegue de um rio pode ser usada como covariável para KR e CK. Considerando-se que a variabilidade da cota do leito do rio é abrupta transversalmente a direção do fluxo, espera-se que quanto maior a distância euclidiana de um ponto até o talvegue, maior será sua elevação. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o uso da covariável proposta em métodos híbridos de krigagem para a predição espacial da topografia do leito de rios. Para tanto, foi realizada uma validação externa, em que seções transversais foram usadas para interpolação e dados levantados entre as seções consistiram na amostra de teste. Os resultados da KR e CK foram comparados aos da krigagem ordinária. A KR apresentou a menor REQM. No mapa resultante da KR, o talvegue foi preservado nas lacunas não amostradas entre as seções, enquanto os demais métodos subestimaram a profundidade do talvegue nestes espaços. Assim, conclui-se que a KR pode melhorar a predição espacial de dados batimétricos fluviais.