Journal Article

Digital Soil map of the world

Ahamed, Sonia, Winowiecki, Leigh A, Hartemink, Alfred E, Land and Water ; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Australia] (CSIRO), Sanchez, Pedro A, European Commission, State Key laboratory of soil and sustainable agriculture ; Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch] (CAS), Sachs, Jeffrey D, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources ; The University of Sydney, Hempel, Jonathan, Vanlauwe, Bernard, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Montanarella, Luca, Laboratoire d'étude des Interactions Sol - Agrosystème - Hydrosystème (UMR LISAH) ; Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Zhang, Gan-Lin, Mcbratney, Alex B, World Agroforestry Centre, Shepherd, Keith D, Carré, Florence, Columbia University [New York], Lagacherie, Philippe, Walsh, Markus

2009

Overview

Soils are increasingly recognized as major contributors to ecosystem services such as food production and climate regulation (1, 2), and demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information is soaring. But communicating such information among diverse audiences remains challenging because of inconsistent use of technical jargon, and outdated, imprecise methods. Also, spatial resolutions of soil maps for most parts of the world are too low to help with practical land management. While other earth sciences (e.g., climatology, geology) have become more quantitative and have taken advantage of the digital revolution, conventional soil mapping delineates space mostly according to qualitative criteria and renders maps using a series of polygons, which limits resolution. These maps do not adequately express the complexity of soils across a landscape in an easily understandable way

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),CCSD,American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Agrology / Cellular Biology / classification / Life Sciences / Organic soils / Pedogenesis / Policy Forum / Soil ecology / Soil mapping / Soil properties / Soil resources / Soil science / Soil texture / Soil water
• ISBN: 0002687237000