Blog

Oracles and Science: The Trouble with Predictions
“Mortagne-reeds and elms refracted in the ball” by Mo is licensed under CC BY 2.0 We all want to know the future, but what is… Read More

2 November 2016
The Real Benefits of Digital Soil Mapping
Proponents of digital soil mapping sometimes criticize traditional soil mapping for using a discrete data model to describe a continuous surface (field) and lacking a quantified… Read More

5 July 2015
Types of Measurement Error
We always want to avoid error, but it is a fact of life. At the foundation of analysis and modelling, we rely on measurements. Because errors in measurements are inescapable, the important question is how much does the error affect the result? I start the conversation by explaining what measurement error is, including its component parts, and what we can do to minimize its effect. Read More

30 May 2015
CLORPT: Spatial Association in Soil Geography
Eugene W. Hilgard(Online Archive of California) From as early as 500 BCE, humans have recognized that some things vary together in space. This is essentially… Read More

24 April 2015
The Value of Soil: A Spatial Perspective
Water erosion removing good soil from a field. Soil scientists like to remind everyone that “soil is not dirt.” They are of course, right, but… Read More

25 March 2015
Colluvium vs Alluvium
UPDATE: The tremendous response to this blog post led to an international and interdisciplinary survey on how these terms are/should be defined. The results of… Read More

23 February 2015
Accuracy vs Precision
Scientists often measure and predict things. Therefore, we need ways to describe how much we know, how close a number is to reality, and how… Read More

18 January 2015
Types of Scale
When you read the phrases “large scale” or “small scale,” do you know what they mean? Sometimes “large scale” describes a large area, and sometimes… Read More

8 December 2014
Fundamentals of Spatial Prediction
In the process of creating a map, geographers often have to engage in the activity of spatial prediction. Although there are many tools we use… Read More

16 November 2014
The Cycle of Science
In an earlier post I contrasted induction and deduction while suggesting that induction is the currently… Read More

17 August 2014