6. Scaling Characteristics of Soil Structure

As previously discussed in Chap. 5, soil structure is defined by the spatial arrangement of soil primary particles and aggregates. There is increasing evidence that quantitative characterization of the soil structure and of its heterogeneity and complexity holds the key to a deeper understanding on physical, chemical, and biological processes that take place within them (Vogel 2000; Rockhold et al. 2004; Young et al. 2008; Blair et al. 2007; Pajor et al. 2010; Kravchenko et al. 2010; Dullien 2012).Therefore, it is very important to obtain an accurate description of it which best approximates to reality. Although many parameters may be used to attempt to describe irregular morphology, the spatial arrangement of the most prominent features is a challenging problem across a wide range of disciplines (Ripley 1988; Griffith 1988; Baveye and Boast 1988).