The soil color is easily determined through the visual comparison with the Munsell charts and relates with the presence of iron oxides and organic matter in the soil. The color measurement by instruments through remote sensing has greater precision due to controlled, non-subjective conditions. The aims of this research were to compare the color of different soils from Rio Grande do Sul State Brazil measured by the Munsell charts and colorimetry and to correlate the color with the soil characteristics. The smallest variability in determining color through Munsell chart was observed in the hue component and the largest in the chrome. The correlation coefficients showed that there is coherence among the color measurements using Munsell chart and the colorimeter. The colorimeter was efficient to quantify color, eliminating psicophysics errors typical of the visual method. The characteristics of the soils analyzed presented high correlations with the components of the color obtained by colorimetry, inidicating this technique as efficient and promising to obtain information of the soil in a simple way with low cost.
pedology; soil morphology; soil genesis; remote sensing
