Evaluation of Machine Learning Models for Predicting Soil Texture Using Sentinel-1A SAR and Topographic Information

Abstract

Applications such as agriculture, hydrology, and environmental management need the mapping of soil texture. In a research region near the Great Zab River in Iraq, this study assessed machine learning models for predicting important soil texture qualities using Sentinel-1A radar and digital elevation data. 75 soil samples in all were gathered, and their percentages of clay, silt, gravel, sand, and moisture content were determined. The models that were examined were Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Logistic Regression (LR) (ANN). Based on test data, results indicated that RF had the lowest Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) in terms of forecasting clay (0.994 percent), specific gravity (0.012), gravel (10.802 percent), and sand (9.894 percent) (0.094 percent). Additionally, it had the greatest R2 values for clay (0.68), silt (0.68), sand (0.474), specific gravity (0.764), and gravel (0.639). (0.826). When it came to predicting moisture content, ANN excelled (RMSE 2.515, R2 0.776). According to the RF feature significance scores, elevation was determined to be the most significant input variable. The study showed that precise maps of soil texture prediction may be obtained by utilizing RF machine learning in conjunction with Sentinel-1A data and digital elevation models. This provides an effective way for mapping soil properties in remote places with minimal effort.

Keywords

• soil texture
• machine learning
• digital elevation model
• mosul city
• al-zab area