Soil and Terrain Database for Southern Africa (SOTERSAF)

The Soil and Terrain database for South Africa primary data (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million (SOTER_South_Africa), was compiled of enhanced soil information within the framework of the FAO's program Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA). Primary soil and terrain data for South Africa were obtained from the SOTERSAF database (ver. 1) at scale 1:2 million. This version of SOTER_South_Africa includes some changes in the GIS file, based on the SRTM-DEM derived data and a changes of the attributes database. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts.

The Soil and Terrrain database of Central Africa (SOTERCAF, version 1.0) was compiled at scale 1:2 million for the Democratic Republic of Congo and at scale 1:1 million for Rwanda and Burundi. The SOTERCAF compilation has been a joint collaboration of the Soil Science Laboratory of the University of Ghent, Belgium and ISRIC - World Soil Information, Wageningen under contract with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Further assistance is provided by the Department BIOT of the Hogeschool Gent, the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren) and data holders in the Democratic Republic Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. The project started in September 2005 by deriving physiographic units from SRTM grid data based on SOTER landform definitions. The database was completed in July 2006 after combining the physiographic layer with the lithology and soils layer. The border harmonization with the SOTERSAF database was finalized November 2006. SOTERCAF forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts.

The Soil and Terrain database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SOTERLAC), version 2.0, at scale 1:5 million, replaces version 1.02. The update includes changes in the GIS file and in the attributes database. The topographic base of the SOTERLAC map was adapted to a version congruent to the Digital Chart of the World. The SOTERLAC attribute database has changed in respect to the number of ... pedon attributes that can be stored. Contrary to the preceding, compact version, version 2.0 can accommodate all pedon attributes considered in a 1:1 million scale SOTER database. SOTERLAC forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts

This harmonized set of soil parameter estimates for Southern Africa has been derived from the 1:2M scale Soil and Terrain Database for Southern Africa (SOTERSAF ver. 1.0) and ISRIC-WISE soil profile database. The land surface of Southern Africa has been characterized using 4022 unique SOTER units, corresponding with 6099 polygons. The major soils have been described using 941 profiles, selected by national soil experts as being representative for these units. The associated soil analytical data have been derived from soil survey reports. These sources seldom hold all the physical and chemical attributes ideally required by SOTER. Gaps in the measured soil profile data have been filled using a step-wise procedure that uses taxonomy-based pedotransfer rules, based on some 9600 soil profiles held in the WISE2 database. Parameter estimates are presented by soil unit for fixed depth intervals of 0.2 m to 1 m depth for: organic carbon, total nitrogen, pH(H2O), CECsoil, CECclay, base saturation, effective CEC, aluminium saturation, CaCO3 content, gypsum content, exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), electrical conductivity of saturated paste (ECe), bulk density, content of sand, silt and clay, content of coarse fragments (less than 2 mm), and available water capacity (-33 to -1500 kPa). These attributes have been identified as being useful for agro-ecological zoning, land evaluation, crop growth simulation, modelling of soil carbon stocks and change, and analyses of global environmental change. The current parameter estimates should be seen as best estimates based on the current selection of soil profiles and data clustering procedure. Taxotransfer rules have been flagged to provide an indication of the possible confidence in the derived data. Results are presented as summary files and have been linked to the 1:2M scale SOTERSAF map in a GIS, through the unique SOTER-unit code.

The Soil and Terrain database for Malawi (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million, was compiled based on the soil map of Malawi at scale 1:250,000 (compiled by the Land Resources Evaluation Project) that was complemented with soil boundary information from the provisional soil map at scale 1:1 million. The 90m SRTM-DEM was used to define the various landform types of the SOTER units and also to adjust their boundaries. The SOTER map units were attributed with soil information obtained from the Africa Soil Profiles Database. The SOTER compilation followed the methodology described in the SOTER Procedures Manual Version 2. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts. DOI for dataset (submitted): 10.17027/isric.wdcsoils.20160002

The Soil and Terrain database for Argentina primary data (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million (SOTER_Argentina), was compiled of enhanced soil information within the framework of the FAO's program Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA). Primary soil and terrain data for Argentina were obtained from the SOTERLAC database (ver. 2) at scale 1:5 million. This update includes considerable changes in the GIS file, based on the SRTM-DEM derived surface information and on INTA's digital soil map (Instituto de Suelos), and only few changes of the attributes database. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts.