What is Pedometrics?

Pedometrics = pedos [soil] and metron [measurement]

“Pedometrics” (term coined by A.B. McBratney) is a neologism, which stems from the Greek words pedos [soil] and metron [measurement]. It is formed and used analogously to other applied statistical fields such as biometrics, psychometrics, econometrics etc. (see Preface of Geoderma, 1994: 62). Pedometrics is defined as:

“the application of mathematical and statistical methods for the quantitative modeling of soils, with the purpose of analyzing its distribution, properties and behavior”

Trends in soil science sub-disciplines and subjects between 1967 and 2001. The ordinate is the percentage of papers in Geoderma (source A.. E. Hartemink et al., 2001; Geoderma, 100, pp. 217-268).

Contemporary pedometrics topics:

• Analysis and modeling of spatial and temporal variation of soil properties
• Digital soil mapping
• Error propagation
• Multiscale data integration
• Soil-landscape modeling
• SCORPAN or CLORPT based modeling
• Soil pattern analysis
• Quantitative soil classification algorithms
• Pedogenic simulation modeling
• Design and evaluation of sampling schemes
• Soil sensors
• Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for soil mapping
• Remote sensing supported soil mapping
• and more