Clustering soil properties for appropriate soil improvement in Huay Sai royal development study center, thailand

Abstract

During the 1980s, land in the Huay Sai area located in Petchaburi Province, Thailand, was frequently overcultivated without accompanying soil conservation practices. This led to depletion of soil fertility and soils eventually became sandy. However, following establishment of the Huay Sai Royal Development Study Center, soil quality at Huay Sai has gradually been restored. Nevertheless, acidic and sandy soils and soil loss remain problematic. This study aims to categorize soil properties in the Huay Sai area in order to apply as the database for appropriate soil improvement. Forty-three soil samples were collected for analysis of pH, texture, organic matter, phosphorus and potassium. The analytical results were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis with average linkage and squares Euclidean distance in order to cluster soil properties and highlight critical parameters for each cluster. The clustering results showed four soil property typologies i.e. moderately fertile soil, extremely acidic low nutrient soil, sandy low nutrient soil, and low fertility soil. The analysis indicates that some soils at Huay Sai area are infertile and need suitable amendment by appropriate methods prior to renewed use in agriculture. Moreover, soil properties should be regularly monitored for applying as land development database of Huay Sai Royal Development Study Center.