Overview of Pedometrics

Pedometrics is concerned with the application of mathematical and statistical methods to the study of the distribution and genesis of soils. Here, we describe the main areas that pedometric research addresses: distribution of the soil pattern in character space, spatial and spatio-temporal soil variation, quantitative evaluation of the utility and quality of soil, and quantitative pedogenesis. To these main areas akin to the problems of pedology, pedometrics considers and represents uncertainty. Pedometric research is undeniably in an expansion phase and has now many areas of application at the interface with many questions relevant to the sustainable growth of our societies.