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FAO-UNESCO DIG. SOIL MAP OF THE WORLD - AFRICA; RELEASE 1.0

Entry ID: GNVd0071_104

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Summary

Abstract: The FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World (1:5 000 000 scale) published from 1974 to 1978 was first digitized by the ESRI Corporation of Redlands, California (USA) from a total of 18 map sheets in the early 1980s. The FAO Soil Map of the World legend includes an estimated 1650 different mapping units, consisting of soil units or associations thereof, which occur within the limits of a mappable ... physiographic unit. When a given map unit is non-homogeneous, it is composed of dominant and component soils, the latter being associated soils and inclusions (which cover respectively at least 20%, and less than 20% of the unit). The number of soil type classes which compose the FAO Soil Map legend is 106, and these are often grouped into 26 major categories ("Great Soil groups"). A total of 12 soil phases, three texture classes, three slope classes and so-called "miscellaneous (e.g., non-soil) land units" are also recognized in this digital version of the FAO-Unesco Soil Map.

The original FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World was in the Bipolar Conic Conformal Projection for the Western Hemisphere, and in the Miller Oblated Stereographic Projection for the Eastern Hemisphere. In order to have a global digital data set that was consistent and uniform, the Latitude/Longitude coordinate system (what ARC/INFO calls a 'Geographic' projection) was used for the 1992 updated version of the FAO Soil Map. Also, "some errors in the original maps, in the original digitized version, and consistency errors in the expansion file have been corrected. The soil legend has been updated and parts of the maps may also be updated in the future" (FAO 1992).

For the accurate computation of areas on the digital map, FAO transformed the Americas into the Mollweide equal-area projection, and the rest of the world into the McBride-Thomas flat polar quartic, another equal-area projection. A template containing water-related features and country boundaries from the World Databank-II was used to overlay the soils data, and this final map was used to develop tabular data defining the extent of mapping units, soil units, and texture and slope classes for all countries/areas.

Aside from the geographic data (location of soil class boundaries), the updated FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World contains the following: attribute files with information for each soil polygon on the map; an expansion file for the World containing additional information on the soil mapping units; and tabular data files containing information on the areal extent of mapping units or their texture and slope classes. The expansion file and tabular data are in a format suitable for importing into any standard DBMS software such as Dbase III/IV.

The data set as supplied by FAO comes in the form of 63 diskettes containing a series of ARC/INFO 'EXPORT' files for seven continental areas (Africa, North and Central America, Central and South America, Europe west of the Urals, Northeast Asia, the Near East and Far East, Southeast Asia and Oceania). The 63 'EXPORT'-format data files can be assembled into a total of 12 separate ARC/INFO polygon coverages for Africa, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, the Near East (Southwest Asia), the Far East (Southern Asia), Central Asia, Australia and Oceania.

GRID-Geneva has reformatted these 63 files/12 coverages through the use of ARC/EDIT and the ARC 'APPEND' command into only eight coverages and their equivalent 'EXPORT' files, for easier data management/transport. These are for the following geographic areas: Africa; North (includes Central) America; South America; Europe; Northern Asia (essentially, the CIS countries east of the Urals); Southern Asia (from the Middle Eastern countries through Japan); Southeast Asia; Australia/Oceania. These data files can all be supplied on a single magnetic tape, with separate documentation and user notes included. The eight ARC/INFO (uncompressed) 'EXPORT' data files supplied by GRID range from 6.3 to 11.6 Megabytes in size, while their respective ARC coverages comprise between 2.3 and 4.2 Mbs each (exs. for Australia/Oceania and Africa).

The original source document for this data set is as follows: "FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World", 1:5000000, ten vols., Unesco-Paris 1974. A more recent publication explaining FAO's 1992 digital version of the data set is as follows: "The Digitized Soil Map of the World - Notes", World Soil Resources Report 67 (2-7), Release 1.1, FAO-Rome, June 1992, 32 pages. The latter document is distributed along with the digital data by GRID.

FAO requests that technical questions about the original soil map or suggestions about new developments or for corrections and improvements by users should be addressed to the Director, Land and Water Development Division; FAO/UN; Via delle Terme di Caracalla; 00100 Rome ITALY; while questions concerning the digitized map should be referred to Director of the Publications Division at the same address.

Geographic Coverage

(Click for Interactive Map)

Spatial coordinates

N: 40.0

S: -35.0

E: 60.0

W: -20.0

Data Set Citation

Online Resource: http://geonetwork.grid.unep.ch/geonetwork/srv/en/main.home

Location Keywords

CONTINENT > AFRICA

Science Keywords

AGRICULTURE > SOILS

LAND SURFACE > SOILS

ISO Topic Category

FARMING

GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION

Ancillary Keywords

SOIL TYPES (CLASSIFICATION OF)

SOILS

Subject Disciplines > Soil Sciences

Terrestrial Ecosystems > Soils

Originating Center

UNEP/EAD/GRID - Geneva

Data Center

Global Resource Information Database - Geneva, Division of Early Warning and Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme

Data Center URL: http://www.grid.unep.ch/

Data Center Personnel
Name: HY DAO Phone: 41-22-917-82-25 Fax: 41-22-917-80-29 Email: Hy.Dao at unep.org Contact Address: Head of Metadata & Socio-Economics Unit City: Geneva Postal Code: 1219 Country: SWITZERLAND

Personnel

HY DAO

Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Phone: 41-22-917-82-25

Fax: 41-22-917-80-29

Email: Hy.Dao at unep.org

Contact Address:

Head of Metadata & Socio-Economics Unit

City: Geneva

Postal Code: 1219

Country: SWITZERLAND

Creation and Review Dates

Last DIF Revision Date: 2012-07-19

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