New article by Richer de Forges et al. (2025)

In the field, soil scientists make hand-feel observations of soil texture, which are less accurate than laboratory measurements but much more numerous. It might therefore be tempting to use these observations as calibration data when producing digital soil maps using statistical modelling of soil texture. However, as these observations are less precise, they also introduce a degree of uncertainty.

This study, carried out in the Loiret département, involved 1,000 texture measurements in the laboratory and 15,000 hand-feel texture observations using data from the DoneSol database. Several statistical models were carried out using different strategies for the use of hand-feel texture observations, with or without the use of the uncertainty associated with them. The results of this study show the value of using hand-feel texture observations but integrating their associated uncertainties according to a carefully adapted methodology.

Access to the article: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05014984v1