Information on the thesis

The concept of information is one of the fundamental terms in informatiology, but also in other branches of science, including soil science. The development of a new direction of approaches and analysis of soil data based on automated information systems has led to the use in soil science of new terminology and modern methods, which are borrowed from computer science, computer theory and programming.

It is proposed to define informational soil science as a new direction of soil science, which includes a system of ordering, collecting, storing and analyzing soil data at different hierarchical levels, obtaining continuous information in space and time on soil condition for modeling and balanced use, reproduction and management of soil resources based on environmental, social, economic and legal requirements.

In order to understand the specifics and special conditions of the formation of information resources in soil science, the historical stages of accumulation and formalization of information about soils are studied. Especially effective is the historical analysis of soil cartographic research at the national, regional and global levels, which allows us to assess the world’s soil resources and approach the common requirements and approaches in the study and mapping of soil cover. An detailed review of the main soil information systems is done: SOTER (global), LUCAS (Europe), ESDB (Europe), NASIS (USA), CanSIS (Canada) and others. Most systems have been tested as well. It is established that the methods of studying soils of different scientific schools are not standardized, which complicates the harmonization of data for use within a single database.

The object of study of informational soil science is information about soils, its properties and processes in all its manifestations and forms. The subject of informational soil science is all aspects of the functioning of information, namely: the processes of origin, transmission, storage, processing, dissemination of information about the soil, its properties and soil processes; approaches to manage information processes; general patterns of influence of information processes on the nature of applied communications in soil science.

It is established that in the process of its origin and development, the soil forms the internal information model, which is a holistic multi-stage organized information system and contains information about all stages of matter development – from space to social. The division of soil information into three different types is given: abiotic, biotic and sociogenic. The type of imperial information is divided into empirical-agricultural, experimental and theoretical soil science. The volume of the imperial type of information is growing rapidly, leading to so-called information explosions.

An information model of soil description for use in the data storage and processing has been developed, and a system of formalization of heterogeneous soil data has been proposed and a database structure has been created. Based on the natural hierarchy of soils, soil objects of vertical soil structure (profiles, horizons (layers), morphons, samples) and spatial soil objects (planar (contours, polygons), linear (transects, catenaries), point (profiles, sections). The developed soil coordinate system allows to determine the position of the soil object in space among other components of the soil body structure and has the form of a set of indices specifying the affiliation of soil properties to one of the soil objects within the soil system.

Based on the open GIS program QGIS a regional soil information system of Lviv region was designed and developed as a means of formalizing soil data at various organizational levels, as well as an application tool for solving certain technological problems in soil science and land use. The developed soil information system contains data on soils of the Lviv region, organized archival survey data provides the ability to enter, store and process a large amount of actual soil data. The information system provides a complete description of the soil section in the same form in which it existed on paper in analogue form, thus preserving all the semantic and logical connections between soil indicators and objects. The important task of accounting for soil information, combining data on various topics, using digital soil maps and materials of large-scale soil surveys of the Lviv region as a basis has been solved.

The developed regional soil information system of Lviv region allows to process any numerical indicator of soil properties and to create thematic maps of spatial distribution of these properties for a certain depth within a certain territory. In addition, using the generally accepted methodology, a specially developed tool of the soil information system of the Lviv region quickly and efficiently performs the normative monetary valuation of agricultural land. The availability of the interface of the developed program and the availability of clear classifiers of soil parameters allows to expand the database and create regional arrays of soil data in the form of polygonal (soil contours) and point (soil profiles) layers.