DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11394277
title: Vis-NIR Soil Spectral Library of the Hungarian Soil Degradation Observation System

description: Since soil spectroscopy is considered to be a fast, simple, accurate and non-destructive analytical method, its application can be integrated with wet analysis as an alternative. Therefore, development of national-level soil spectral libraries containing information about all soil types represented in a country is continuously increasing to serve as a basis for calibrated predictive models capable of assessing physical and chemical parameters of soils at multiple spatial scales. In this article, we present a database containing laboratory and visible-near infrared spectral data of legacy soil samples from the Hungarian Soil Degradation Observation System (HSDOS). The published data set includes the following parameters measured in 5,490 soil samples: pHKCl, soil organic matter (SOM), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), total salt content (TSC), total nitrogen (Ntotal), soluble phosphorus (P2O5-AL), soluble potassium (K2O-AL), plasticity index according to Hungarian standard (PLI), soil profile depth and reflectance data between 350 and 2,500 nm wavelength. The presented database can be a complement for further soil related research on continental, national or regional scales to support sustainable soil management.

Uploaded CSV file contains variables for general information, soil parameters and reflectance data of spectral bands between 350-2,500 nm. Details about variables can be found in Table 1.






Column name



Description



Method



Unit





SAMPLE_TDR_ID



Original TDR IDs



-



-





SAMPLING_DATE



Date of sampling



-



YYYY-MM-DD





NORTHING_EOV



Northing coordinate of sampling area centroids



-



m





EASTING_EOV



Easting coordinate of sampling area centroids



-



m





LON_WGS84



Longitude of sampling area centroids



-



°





LAT_WGS84



Latitude of sampling area centroids



-



°





pH_KCl



pH



Potentiometer (MSZ–08 0206-2: 1978)40



-





SOM



Soil organic matter



E4/E6 ratio41,42 (MSZ–08-0452:1980)43



%





CaCO3



Calcium carbonate



Scheibler type calcimeter (MSZ–08 0206-2:1978)40



%





TSC



Total salt content



EC-TDS electrode (MSZ–08-0206-2:1978)40



w/w %





TN



Total nitrogen



Kjeldahl method44 (ISO 11261:1995)45



mg kg-1





P2O5_AL



Soluble phosphorus



AL extract atomic adsorption spectrophotometry (MSZ 20135:1999)46



mg kg-1





K2O_AL



Soluble potassium



AL extract, flame photometer (MSZ 20135:1999)46



mg kg-1





PLI



Plasticity index according to Hungarian standard



Yarn test of Arany (MSZ–08 0205-2:1978)47



-





PROFILE_LEVEL



Soil profile depth level



-



-





SPC350:2500



spectral reflectance in the range of 350 and 2500 nm



ASD FieldSpec 4 spectroradiometer



-





Table 1. Summary of included attributes and data set structure with laboratory test methods applied on the soil samples.

 

For more details / to cite this dataset please use:

Mészáros, J., Kovács, Zs., László, P., Vass-Meyndt, Sz., Koós, S., Pirkó, B., Szűcs-Vásárhelyi, N., Bakacsi, Zs., Laborczi, A., Balog, K., & Pásztor, L. (2024). Vis-NIR soil spectral library of the Hungarian Soil Degradation Observation System. Sci Data 12, 363 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-04667-9