Key words: Soil erosion. soil reflectance spectroscopy, PLS regression, spatial distribution ... cycle that may influence global warming (LAL, 2004). Conventional ...
Rend. Online Soc. Geol. It., Vol. 21 (2012), pp. 1202-1204, 3 figs. © Società Geologica Italiana, Roma 2012
Soil erosion assessment using proximal spectral reflectance in VIS-NIRSWIR region in sample area of Calabria region (southern Italy) MASSIMO CONFORTI (*), GABRIELE BUTTAFUOCO (*), ANTONIO P. LEONE (**), PIETRO P.C. AUCELLI (***), GAETANO ROBUSTELLI (°) & FABIO SCARCIGLIA (°) Key words: Soil erosion. soil reflectance spectroscopy, PLS regression, spatial distribution, Calabria.
INTRODUCTION Soil erosion is one of the most serious types of land degradation and it has severe economic and environmental impacts in the Mediterranean belt, as well as in large areas of the Italian territory. Water erosion and mass wasting are the major causes of soil degradation in large areas of the Calabria region, which may determine soil truncation or complete removal, loss of biodiversity and quality of ecosystem functions, decrease in productivity and may lead to desertification. The occurrence, depth and quality of surface horizons can be considered as indicators of the preservation/degradation state of soils in the field. Therefore, many soil properties can be directly linked to the soil erosion status, such as organic matter, calcium carbonate, texture, aggregation structure, infiltration capacity, etc. In particular, soil organic matter (SOM) content and its possible depletion can be assumed as a reliable tools for a quantitative assessment of soil degradation. It was shown that, in many cases, soils with
