Vis-NIR Soil Spectral Library of the Hungarian Soil Degradation Observation System

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