Pedometric mapping, or statistical soil mapping, is data-driven generation of soil property and class maps that is based on use of statistical methods.[1][2][3] Its main objectives are to predict values of some soil variable at unobserved locations, and to access the uncertainty of that estimate using statistical inference i.e. statistically optimal approaches. From the application point of view, its main objective is to accurately predict response of a soil-plant ecosystem to various soil management strategies—that is, to generate maps of soil properties and soil classes that can be used for other environmental models and decision-making. It is largely based on applying geostatistics in soil science, and other statistical methods used in pedometrics.
Although pedometric mapping is mainly data-driven, it can also be largely based on expert knowledge—which, however, must be utilized within a pedometric computational framework to produce more accurate prediction models. For example, data assimilation techniques, such as the space-time Kalman filter, can be used to integrate pedogenetic knowledge and field observations.[4]
In the information theory context, pedometric mapping is used to describe the spatial complexity of soils (information content of soil variables over a geographical area), and to represent this complexity using maps, summary measures, mathematical models and simulations.[5] Simulations are a preferred way of visualizing soil patterns, as they represent their deterministic pattern (due to the landscape), geographic hot-spots, and short range variability (see image, below).[citation needed]