Hebryn-Baydi L. Application of aerospace methods in agricultural soil fertility evaluation of Zakarpattia landscape zones

Dissertation is devoted to solving theoretical and practical problems of evaluating the agricultural soil fertility indicators with the usage of aerospace methods and land data based on construction of linear regression dependence and application of non-linear agricultural lands’ efficiency models to different landscape zones in Zakarpattia. Main indicators of soil fertility were justified and classified using the methods of remote sensing that are identified based on the information from landscape spectrophotometric analysis. The statistical linear dependence between the indicators of the vegetation state obtained as a result of multi-spectrum space images’ processing and the soil fertility indicators under the conditions of different landscape zones in Zakarpattia was studied and constructed. This statistical linear dependence enables evaluation and quantitative forecasting of the agricultural crop harvest. Theoretical aspects of soil fertility are considered and it is stated that significant importance and actuality should be attached to the matter of innovative informational approaches, in particular GIS application to evaluation of agroecological state of the agricultural land as foundation for scientifically grounded recommendations for rational, ecologically safe agricultural land use. The methodological approaches of aerospace survey to study of the state of agricultural land which are aimed at implementing the unified system of aerospace monitoring of the change in soil fertility are analyzed. Analysis and classification of the main soil fertility indicators with the help of remote sensing methods are performed. Soil fertility indicators that are identified based on spectral brightness information with the help of remote sensing are defined. It is defined that the ground monitoring system should be added with the aerospace information which is based on usage of asynchronical multi-spectral images. An important asset of soil indicators is the fact that they are quantitative rates, thus can serve foundation for standardization of automatic soil deciphering. Methodological approaches to defining of the particle-size content of soil based on spectral brightness of channels on the space images and percent indicator of the quantity of particle-sizes obtained using the ground survey are improved. It is summarized that mathematical calculations enable more precision of findings than classification on the spectral pixel data of. The process of identifying and evaluating of the soil moisture indicator was improved by way of applying processing of multi-spectral aerospace images and conducting mathematical calculations on the data of spectral brightness of channels. Usage of the normalized index of NWI which is calculated on data from multi-spectral aerospace imaging on the basis of normalized difference of the spectral reflection in short-wave infrared spectral band is justified. Efficiency of this index in application to soil moisture evaluation for solving agrotechnical problems is proved. Methodological approaches to identifying and evaluating the quantitative indicator of humus level with the help of aerospace and ground research under conditions of various landscape zones of the oblast is used and improved. As a result of mathematical processing of the indicators it was observed that power dependence based on the model with six spectral channels Landsat is best used for identification and evaluation of quantitative indicators of humus level in soil following ground and satellite research. Given less number of channels, other models with lower standard deviation can be applicable. Application of the designed spectral indicators enables operational and precise collection of information on quantitative indicators of humus level in soil for rational managerial decision-making about utilization of applicable agrotechnical means for prevention of soil fertility reduction in relation to landscape zones of the region. The state of soil fertility saturation according to costs for growing agricultural crops is discussed. Non-linear mathematical model of dependence of economic soil fertility on cost is proposed and the value of optimal cost is defined at which the fertility of farm crops in different landscape zones in Zakarpattia reached the maximum level. Agricultural lands of Zakarpattia depending on location of landscape zones and soil fertility indicators were classified.Usage of the designed non-linear mathematical models of dependence of economic soil fertility on cost increases competit