Changing Epistemic Uncertainties in Soil Classification and Digital Mapping

Changing epistemic uncertainties are discussed in the context of soil classification leading to the production of a digital soil map. Uncertainties are associated with a diverse range of data inputs with each input subject to possible errors in data acquisition and transmission. Epistemic uncertainties relate primarily to the information content, or lack thereof, rather than to variability in covariates or inputs - which are referred to as aleatory uncertainties. The discussion covers topics related to changing uncertainties in data and its collection over time, and the possible effects on classification of soils and their representation at different scales and the surrogates used.