LimeSoDa: A dataset collection for benchmarking of machine learning regressors in digital soil mapping

LimeSoDa: A dataset collection for benchmarking of machine learning regressors in digital soil mapping

Digital soil mapping (DSM) relies on a broad pool of statistical methods, yet determining the optimal method for a given context remains challenging and contentious. Benchmarking studies on multiple datasets are needed to reveal strengths and limitations of commonly used methods. Existing DSM studie...

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Main Authors: Jonas Schmidinger, Sebastian Vogel, Viacheslav Barkov, Anh-Duy Pham, Robin Gebbers, Hamed Tavakoli, Jose Correa, Tiago R. Tavares, Patrick Filippi, Edward J. Jones, Vojtech Lukas, Eric Boenecke, Joerg Ruehlmann, Ingmar Schroeter, Eckart Kramer, Stefan Paetzold, Masakazu Kodaira, Alexandre M.J.-C. Wadoux, Luca Bragazza, Konrad Metzger, Jingyi Huang, Domingos S.M. Valente, Jose L. Safanelli, Eduardo L. Bottega, Ricardo S.D. Dalmolin, Csilla Farkas, Alexander Steiger, Taciara Z. Horst, Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, Thomas Scholten, Felix Stumpf, Pablo Rosso, Marcelo M. Costa, Rodrigo S. Zandonadi, Johanna Wetterlind, Martin Atzmueller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-07-01
Series:Geoderma
Subjects:
Machine learning
Benchmarking
Open data
Dataset collection
Digital soil mapping
Pedometrics
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125001752
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Summary:Digital soil mapping (DSM) relies on a broad pool of statistical methods, yet determining the optimal method for a given context remains challenging and contentious. Benchmarking studies on multiple datasets are needed to reveal strengths and limitations of commonly used methods. Existing DSM studies usually rely on a single dataset with restricted access, leading to incomplete and potentially misleading conclusions. To address these issues, we introduce an open-access dataset collection called Precision Liming Soil Datasets (LimeSoDa). LimeSoDa consists of 31 field- and farm-scale datasets from various countries. Each dataset has three target soil properties: (1) soil organic matter or soil organic carbon, (2) clay content and (3) pH, alongside a set of features. Features are dataset-specific and were obtained by optical spectroscopy, proximal- and remote soil sensing. All datasets were aligned to a tabular format and are ready-to-use for modeling. We demonstrated the use of LimeSoDa for benchmarking by comparing the predictive performance of four learning algorithms across all datasets. This comparison included multiple linear regression (MLR), support vector regression (SVR), categorical boosting (CatBoost) and random forest (RF). The results showed that although no single algorithm was universally superior, certain algorithms performed better in specific contexts. MLR and SVR performed better on high-dimensional spectral datasets, likely due to better compatibility with principal components. In contrast, CatBoost and RF exhibited considerably better performances when applied to datasets with a moderate number (<20) of features. These benchmarking results illustrate that the performance of statistical methods can be highly context-dependent. LimeSoDa therefore provides an important resource for improving the development and evaluation of statistical methods in DSM.
ISSN:1872-6259

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