Assessment of soil fertility in Xinjiang oasis cotton field based on big data techniques

Assessing soil fertility through traditional methods has faced challenges due to the vast amount of meteorological data and the complexity of heterogeneous data. In this study, we address these challenges by employing the K-means algorithm for cluster analysis on soil fertility data and developing a novel K-means algorithm within the Hadoop framework. Our research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of soil fertility in the Shihezi region, particularly in the context of oasis cotton fields, leveraging big data techniques. The methodology involves utilizing soil nutrient data from 29 sampling points across six round fields in 2022. Through K-means clustering with varying K values, we determine that setting K to 3 yields optimal cluster effects, aligning closely with the actual soil fertility distribution. Furthermore, we compare the performance of our proposed K-means algorithm under the MapReduce framework with traditional serial K-means algorithms, demonstrating significant improvements in operational speed and successful completion of large-scale data computations. Our findings reveal that soil fertility in the Shihezi region can be classified into four distinct grades, providing valuable insights for agricultural practices and land management strategies. This classification contributes to a better understanding of soil resources in oasis cotton fields and facilitates informed decision-making processes for farmers and policymakers alike.