Spectroradiometric data as support to soil classification

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The demand for soil analysis to increase agricultural and environmental efficiency projects it is growing every day. Thus, new methods that provide reliable results for several soil properties, quickly and cost need to be developed (Viscarra-Rossel et al., 2006). The land use planning projects follow well defined steps which include the soil sampling form to the fertilizers amount applied in a given culture, and other management practices. The soil sampling density is usually dependent to how management should be employed in field, may be 15 to 20 samples for 12 to 20 ha (van Raij et al., 1996), one sample per hectare underutilization of precision agriculture (Wolkowski and  Wollenhaupt, 1994), or any other understood to be the most suitable design for a particular purpose. However, the larger sample volume required for planning to management system will be also higher costs, sample handling time and waste dumped amounts. Demattê et al. (2001) argue that soil analysis costs in precision farming systems are very high in comparison with conventional methods of agricultural management. Thus, the search for more affordable alternatives to determining soil properties are needed, also the use of new and modern technologies (Demattê and Nanni, 2006)