soiltillr provides tools to record, validate, and analyse soil tillage depth and erosion across years and field treatments. It is designed for agronomists, soil scientists, and conservation researchers who need to:
Methods follow Lal (2001) and Renard et al. (1997) RUSLE guidelines.
Install the released version from CRAN:
install.packages("soiltillr")Or install the development version from GitHub:
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("sadikul-islam/soiltillr")| Function | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
validate_soil_data() |
Validation | Check data quality before analysis |
summarise_tillage() |
Tillage | Year × field operation summary |
tillage_depth_trend() |
Tillage | Year-on-year depth change and trend |
detect_compaction() |
Tillage | Compaction risk and plow pan depth |
track_erosion_depth() |
Erosion | Annual erosion tracking and cumulative loss |
estimate_soil_loss() |
Erosion | Mass-balance soil loss in t/ha |
compare_fields() |
Erosion | Side-by-side field comparison |
plot_tillage_timeline() |
Visualisation | Line plot of tillage depth by year |
plot_erosion_trend() |
Visualisation | Erosion depth trend (+ optional cumulative panel) |
plot_om_trend() |
Visualisation | Organic matter trend by field |
plot_tillage_erosion() |
Visualisation | Dual-panel tillage vs erosion comparison |
tillage_operations — 20 rows, 6
columns. Hypothetical year-wise tillage records for Field_A and Field_B
(2018–2023).erosion_profile — 12 rows, 8 columns.
Annual erosion depth, soil loss, bulk density, organic matter, rainfall,
and slope.library(soiltillr)
# Load built-in data
data(tillage_operations)
data(erosion_profile)
# Validate data quality
chk <- validate_soil_data(tillage_operations, "year", "field_id", "depth_cm")
chk$valid # TRUE
# Summarise tillage operations by year and field
till_sum <- summarise_tillage(tillage_operations, "year", "field_id",
"depth_cm", op_col = "operation")
print(till_sum)
# Detect year-on-year depth trends
till_trend <- tillage_depth_trend(tillage_operations, "year",
"field_id", "depth_cm")
till_trend[till_trend$trend == "decreasing", ]
# Detect compaction risk
risk <- detect_compaction(tillage_operations, "year", "field_id",
"depth_cm", compaction_threshold_cm = 20)
risk[risk$compaction_risk == "high", ]
# Track erosion depth
erosion <- track_erosion_depth(erosion_profile, "year",
"field_id", "erosion_depth_mm")
# Estimate soil loss (mass-balance with McCool LS factor)
loss <- estimate_soil_loss(erosion_profile, "year", "field_id",
"erosion_depth_mm", "bulk_density_g_cm3",
slope_col = "slope_pct")
# Compare fields side by side
comp <- compare_fields(erosion_profile, "year", "field_id",
"erosion_depth_mm", "organic_matter_pct")
# Visualise
plot_tillage_timeline(tillage_operations, "year", "field_id", "depth_cm")
plot_erosion_trend(erosion_profile, "year", "field_id",
"erosion_depth_mm", show_cumulative = TRUE)
plot_om_trend(erosion_profile, "year", "field_id", "organic_matter_pct")
plot_tillage_erosion(tillage_operations, erosion_profile,
"year", "field_id", "depth_cm", "erosion_depth_mm")Lal, R. (2001). Soil degradation by erosion. Land Degradation and Development, 12(6), 519–539. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.472
McCool, D. K., Brown, L. C., Foster, G. R., Mutchler, C. K., & Meyer, L. D. (1987). Revised slope steepness factor for the Universal Soil Loss Equation. Transactions of the ASAE, 30(5), 1387–1396. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.30576
Renard, K. G., Foster, G. R., Weesies, G. A., McCool, D. K., & Yoder, D. C. (1997). Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). USDA Agriculture Handbook No. 703. https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB97153704.xhtml
MIT © Sadikul Islam