Articles | Volume 18, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-219-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-219-2026
Data description paper
 | 
08 Jan 2026
Data description paper |  | 08 Jan 2026

Austrian NIR soil spectral library for soil health assessments

Julia Fohrafellner, Maximilian Lippl, Armin Bajraktarevic, Andreas Baumgarten, Heide Spiegel, Robert Körner, and Taru Sandén

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Cited articles

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Barnes, R. J., Dhanoa, M. S., and Lister, S. J.: Standard Normal Variate Transformation and De-Trending of Near-Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectra, Appl. Spectrosc., 43, 772–777, https://doi.org/10.1366/0003702894202201, 1989. 
Bellon-Maurel, V., Fernandez-Ahumada, E., Palagos, B., Roger, J.-M., and McBratney, A.: Critical review of chemometric indicators commonly used for assessing the quality of the prediction of soil attributes by NIR spectroscopy, TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 29, 1073–1081, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2010.05.006, 2010. 
Bieber, M.: VisNIR spectroscopy of agricultural soils for assessing carbon fractions and management practices, Master Thesis, BOKU University, Vienna, https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubbw:1-26536 (last access: 19 December 2025), 2023. 
Chang, C.-W., Laird, D. A., Mausbach, M. J., and Hurburgh, C. R.: Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy–Principal Components Regression Analyses of Soil Properties, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 65, 480–490, https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2001.652480x, 2001. 
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Short summary
The first openly accessible Austrian near-infrared (NIR) Soil Spectral Library was developed, including over 2100 samples covering all Austrian environmental zones. At present, the predictive accuracy for most properties was insufficient compared to routine laboratory analyses; however, several key properties showed predictive potential. We encourage using the open Library as a foundation for further spectral analysis and modelling and we support future soil health assessments via spectroscopy.
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