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Topic · Environmental Engineering

Soil Geostatistics and Mapping

Soil Geostatistics and Mapping is a research topic within Environmental Engineering. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers represents advances in digital soil mapping techniques, including the use of geostatistics, remote sensing, spectroscopy, and machine learning for mapping and predicting soil properties. The focus is on spatial interpolation, global soil information, and the application of these techniques for soil security and terrain analysis.

  • Digital Soil Mapping
  • Geostatistics
  • Remote Sensing
  • Soil Properties
  • Spectroscopy
  • Spatial Interpolation
  • Machine Learning
  • Soil Security
  • Global Soil Information
  • Terrain Analysis
Research works
24k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+21%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil Geostatistics and Mapping

Which countries lead Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.2k and 686 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.2k works
  2. 2 United States 686 works
  3. 3 India 496 works
  4. 4 Brazil 279 works
  5. 5 Germany 192 works
  6. 6 Italy 184 works
  7. 7 Australia 165 works
  8. 8 Canada 152 works
  9. 9 France 145 works
  10. 10 Iran 132 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 33.7%United States: 18.7%India: 13.5%Brazil: 7.6%6 others listed: 26.5%34%largest
China1,235 · 33.7%United States686 · 18.7%India496 · 13.5%Brazil279 · 7.6%6 others listed970 · 26.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research, followed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 153 works
  2. 2 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 64 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 58 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 46 works
  5. 5 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 43 works
  6. 6 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 37 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 34 works
  8. 8 Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'EnvironnementFrance 32 works
  9. 9 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 31 works
  10. 10 The University of SydneyAustralia 30 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil Geostatistics and Mapping?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soil Geostatistics and Mapping include Robert John Tibshirani, Karl John Friston and Donald B. Rubin.

  1. 1 Robert John Tibshirani United States 396k citations
  2. 2 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  3. 3 Donald B. Rubin United States 301k citations
  4. 4 Trevor Hastie United States 301k citations
  5. 5 Mark A. Bradford United States 268k citations
  6. 6 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  7. 7 Gordon K. Smyth Australia 237k citations
  8. 8 Peter M. Bentler United States 233k citations
  9. 9 Jerome H. Friedman United States 224k citations
  10. 10 Stephen M. Smith United Kingdom 214k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Soil Geostatistics and Mapping?

The most cited paper in Soil Geostatistics and Mapping is "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning" (Nasser M. Nasrabadi, 2007), with 22,033 citations. Next come "Refinement of Macromolecular Structures by the Maximum-Likelihood Method" (15,006) and "STATISTICS FOR SPATIAL DATA" (8,945).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning Nasser M. Nasrabadi · Journal of Electronic Imaging 2007 22,033
2 Refinement of Macromolecular Structures by the Maximum-Likelihood Method Garib N. Murshudov, Alexey A. Vagin, E. J. Dodson · Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography May 1997 15,006
3 STATISTICS FOR SPATIAL DATA Noel Cressie · Terra Nova Open access Sep 1992 8,945
4 A review of assessing the accuracy of classifications of remotely sensed data Russell G. Congalton · Remote Sensing of Environment Jul 1991 7,763
5 Positive matrix factorization: A non‐negative factor model with optimal utilization of error estimates of data values Pentti Paatero, Unto Tapper · Environmetrics Jun 1994 6,452
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research done?

The largest centres of Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Moscow (Russia) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Wageningen.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 350 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 78 works
  3. 3 MoscowRussia 62 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 58 works
  5. 5 TehranIran 54 works
  6. 6 ChangchunChina 50 works
  7. 7 ÜrümqiChina 49 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 47 works
  9. 9 SydneyAustralia 44 works
  10. 10 São PauloBrazil 43 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WageningenNL · 27.8 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soil Geostatistics and Mapping than the world average.

See Soil Geostatistics and Mapping on the map

Where is the best place to study Soil Geostatistics and Mapping?

Among universities, judged by research, The University of Sydney, China Agricultural University and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.1%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…The University of Sy…China Agricultural U…University of Chines…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1The University of SydneyAustralia 75.622.4%5.2×30 -16.8%
2China Agricultural UniversityChina 74.120.1%9.9×26 +159.1%
3University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 73.818.4%3.9×31 +57.7%
4Northwest A&F UniversityChina 72.423.6%8.7×16 +103.6%
5Xinjiang UniversityChina 68.920.8%9.7×20 +150.4%
6Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 66.219.1%10.0×17 -3.6%
7Jilin Agricultural UniversityChina 66.128.2%15.3×10 +307.7%
8Shandong Agricultural UniversityChina 64.730.4%13.0×11 +43.4%
9Beijing Normal UniversityChina 61.616.8%5.2×20 +35.6%
10Zhejiang UniversityChina 61.221.2%1.4×17 +55.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Soil Geostatistics and Mapping, country by country

Is Soil Geostatistics and Mapping research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 21% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Soil Geostatistics and Mapping.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Soil Geostatistics and Mapping as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Soil Geostatistics and Mapping0.025% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil Geostatistics and Mapping over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Soil Geostatistics and Mapping10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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