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