Quantitative Evaluation of Soil Quality and Its Spatial Distribution in Some Agricultural Regions of Qazvin Province, Iran

Continuous soil quality evaluation in is necessary agricultural regions to sustainable soil management and profitable agricultural production. The objectives of this study were comprised of an evaluation of soil quality utilizing Integrated Quality Index (IQI) along with its spatial distribution in Qazvin province. IQI was calculated and its spatial changes analyzed using different interpolation methods via GIS software. Precision criteria MAE and RMSE, bias criteria MBE and correlation between measured vs. predicted values (r) were employed to determine a suitable interpolation method. The results indicated an IQI index of strong spatial correlation (Nugget/Sill = 0.38) with an effective range of 19.18 kilometers. The IQI spatial distribution is well fitted by the exponential model. Completely Regularized Spline was selected as a suitable interpolation method using evaluation criteria as well as existing trend in area. IQI model revealed the soil areas with moderate quality (grade III) as dominant.