Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data

Signi?cant technological advances have been few and far between in the past approximately one hundred years of soil survey activities. Perhaps one of the most innovative techniques in the history of soil survey was the introduction of aerial photographs as base maps for ?eld mapping, which replaced the conventional base map laboriously prepared by planetable and alidade. Such a relatively simple idea by today’s standards revolutionized soil surveys by vastly increasing the accuracy and ef?ciently. Yet, even this innovative approach did not gain universal acceptance immediately and was hampered by a lack of aerial coverage of the world, funds to cover the costs, and in some cases a reluctance by some soil mappers and cartog- phers to change. Digital Soil Mapping (DSM), which is already being used and tested by groups of dedicated and innovative pedologists, is perhaps the next great advancement in delivering soil survey information. However, like many new technologies, it too has yet to gain universal acceptance and is hampered by ignorance on the part of some pedologists and other scientists. DSM is a spatial soil information system created by numerical models that - count for the spatial and temporal variations of soil properties based on soil - formation and related environmental variables (Lagacheric and McBratney, 2007).

There has been considerable expansion in the use of digital soil mapping technologies and development of methodologies that improve digital soil mapping at all scales and levels of resolution. These developments have occurred in all parts of the world in the past few years and also in countries where it was previously absent. There is almost always a shortage of data in soil research and its applications and this may lead to unsupported statements, poor statistics, misrepresentations and ultimately bad resource management. In digital soil mapping, maximum use is made of sparse data and this book contains useful examples of how this can be done.

This book focuses on digital soil mapping methodologies and applications for areas where data are limited, and has the following sections (i) introductory papers, (ii) dealing with limited spatial data infrastructures, (iii) methodology development, and (iv) examples of digital soil mapping in various parts of the globe (including USA, Brazil, UK, France, Czech Republic, Honduras, Kenya, Australia). The final chapter summarises priorities for digital soil mapping.