Software for micromorphometric characterization of soil pores obtained from 2-D image analysis

ABSTRACT Studies of soil porosity through image analysis are important to an understanding of how the soil functions. However, the lack of a simplified methodology for the quantification of the shape, number, and size of soil pores has limited the use of information extracted from images. The present work proposes a software program for the quantification and characterization of soil porosity from data derived from 2-D images. The user-friendly software was developed in C++ and allows for the classification of pores in terms of size, shape, and combinations of size and shape. Using raw data generated by image analysis systems, the software calculates the following parameters for the characterization of soil porosity: total area of pore (Tap), number of pores, pore shape, pore shape and pore area, and pore shape and equivalent pore diameter (EqDiam). In this paper, the input file with the raw soil porosity data was generated using the Noesis Visilog 5.4 image analysis system; however other image analysis programs can be used, in which case, the input file requires a standard format to permit processing by this software. The software also shows the descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, variance, and the coefficient of variation) of the parameters considering the total number of images evaluated. The results show that the software is a complementary tool to any analysis of soil porosity, allowing for a precise and quick analysis.摘要 基于图像分析的土壤孔隙度（soil porosity）研究，对解析土壤功能运作机制具有重要价值。然而，当前缺乏可简化量化土壤孔隙形状、数量与尺寸的方法，极大限制了从图像中提取的信息的应用。本研究开发了一款可基于二维（2-D）图像数据对土壤孔隙度进行量化与表征的软件程序。该软件采用C++语言开发，界面友好且易于使用，支持按照孔隙尺寸、形状及二者的组合对孔隙进行分类。其可接收图像分析系统生成的原始数据，并计算用于表征土壤孔隙度的以下参数：孔隙总面积（Tap）、孔隙总数、孔隙形状、孔隙形状与面积、孔隙形状与等效孔隙直径（EqDiam）。本文所用的原始土壤孔隙度数据输入文件，由Noesis Visilog 5.4图像分析系统生成；该软件亦可兼容其他图像分析程序，此时输入文件需采用标准格式以保障软件可正常处理数据。此外，软件可基于所有被评估图像的总数量，输出各参数的描述性统计结果，包括均值、标准差、方差与变异系数。研究结果表明，该软件可作为土壤孔隙度各类分析的辅助工具，能够实现精准且高效的分析。