Mapping of soil sampling sites using terrain and hydrological attributes

Efficient soil sampling is essential for effective soil management and research on soil health. Traditional site selection methods are labor-intensive and fail to capture soil variability comprehensively. This study introduces a deep learning-based tool that automates soil sampling site selection using spectral images. The proposed framework consists of two key components: an extractor and a predictor. The extractor, based on a convolutional neural network (CNN), derives features from spectral images, while the predictor employs self-attention mechanisms to assess feature importance and generate prediction maps. The model is designed to process multiple spectral images and address the class imbalance in soil segmentation. The model was trained on a soil dataset from 20 fields in eastern South Dakota, collected via drone-mounted LiDAR with high-precision GPS. Evaluation on a test set achieved a mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 69.46 % and a mean Dice coefficient (mDc) of 80.35 %, demonstrating strong segmentation performance. The results highlight the model's effectiveness in automating soil sampling site selection, providing an advanced tool for producers and soil scientists. Compared to existing state-of-the-art methods, the proposed approach improves accuracy and efficiency, optimizing soil sampling processes and enhancing soil research. • Optimal soil sampling site identification using terrain and hydrological attributes. • User-friendly method requiring no soil science expertise. • Lightweight deep-learning network for unbalanced spectral images. • The proposed model achieves SOTA performance compared to other models.