Scottish Soil Data: from Paper to Digital

Transcription

1 BSSS: Soils in the digital age World Soil Day 2014 Allan Lilly Scottish Soil Data: from Paper to Digital (Chair European Soil Bureau Network) James Hutton Institute

2 Why collect soil data? Soil is a finite resource and needs to be carefully managed to retain its functionality for future generations Soil regulates flows, stores and transformation of energy, water, nutrients, carbon, contaminants and genetic material There are many conflicting interests in using Scotland s rural land: farming, forestry, recreation, windfarms, infrastructure Systematic soil surveys (and allied profile data) characterise and quantify one of Scotland s major resources and provide a basis for sound decisions on land use and management to be made. The systematic classification of soils allows expertise, modelling and experimental data from one area to be applied to similar soils in another without the need for further experimentation or modelling

3 Soil Survey of Scotland Systematic soil survey in Scotland began in 1938 effectively ending in 1986 Initial work was in surveying land for forestry particularly relating soil characteristics to tree growth The outbreak of WWII lead to the focus switching to agricultural production and the classification of land and its potential. Separate peat surveys were initiated in 1950 to determine the volume of exploitable peat As well as mapping soils, information on soil characteristics was collected which formed the basis of today s Scottish Soils Database

4 Field Mapping Traditional approach to soil mapping Free survey, surveyors discretion Understanding how soils vary in the landscape Relationship with vegetation in uncultivated land wartime GSGS paper maps 1: scale OS topographic maps Approx 1: scale black and white air photographs

5 Scotland s Soil Map Series 1: National cover 1:50 000/ % cultivated land 1: cultivated land 1: Farm & Forest surveys

6 Soil Map units 1:25,000 & 1:63,360 Generally map units are single Soil Series Soil Series: combination of major soil subgroup (soil type), natural drainage and parent material Soil complex: landform with intimate mix of soil series 1:250,000 Based on landforms with consistent suite of major soil subgroups Major soil subgroup: soils with similar horizon sequence Soil Series both a taxonomic and a map unit

7 Mapping Scotland s Peatlands Sample and measure peat characteristics Field measurement at 10m to 100 m intervals Measure depth, height, drainage

8 Location of surveyed peatlands

9 Scottish Soils Database NSIS (10km) & (20km) Locations of around soil profile pits

10 Paper profile records Analytical data has been captured electronically Morphological data has not been captured electronically

11 Standardised profile descriptions

12 Digitised 1: scale soil map First soil map in Scotland to be digitised Revised in 2012 to improve the positioning of water features Integrated with Land cover to specify cultivated vs uncultivated soil phenotypes

13 Digitised 1:25 000/1:63,360 Revision of 1: soil maps Correction of digital dataset Phased release Next stage, digitising 1:63 360

14 Digital mapping of peatlands Organic matter percent (units %) Crown Copyright Exploiting the digital records Analysis of peat characteristics Representation in modern tools Peat depth (m) Change in interest 1950 peat as a fuel 2014 peat as a carbon store Poggio, Gimona, Aalders, Morrice, Hough; Eurosoil 2012 & Geoderma (subm)

15 Scotland s Digital Soil profile data PROFILE DATABASE Profiles and horizons o non-profile samples Analytical data National Soil Inventory of Scotland (NSIS), Selected, Grid, Transect, Research SSKIB derived dataset Data collection since late 1930 s 14,000 Profiles recorded 20,000 Mineral horizons 9,000 Organic horizons & > 21,000 hard copy horizon morphology data 50,000 Records of analyses

16 Summary soil attribute dataset (SSKIB) Statistical summaries for both cultivated and semi-natural soils 530 Soil Series 2500 horizons mean, median, geometric mean, sd, max, min of systematic analytical data for the typical horizon sequence Predicted hydrological properties AWC, Saturation, Field capacity, Bulk density, MVG parameters, GB PTFs, HYPRES PTFS One of our key datasets for national scale modelling

17 Providing Information Online Making information available Characteristics of Scottish soils Enable access by map interface Graphical and numerical reporting

18 Soils Information on Mobile devices SOCiT Soil Organic Carbon information Soil Information for Scottish soils (SIFSS) w-soil-carbon-app-scottish-farmers

19 From today:

20 Interpretive mapping

21 Where next? Global Soil Partnership Pillar 4 proposes a Global dataset of selected soil properties at 90/100m resolution by 2018 (zero version by 2015) Digital soil map of Scotland with properties and estimates of uncertainty (grid v SOTER) Provision of data via Web Mapping Services Novel methods to characterise soils (eg spectroscopy)

22 Thanks for listening!