Harmonisation of the soil map of Africa at the continental scale

Olivier Dewitte; Arwyn Jones; Otto Spaargaren; Henrik Breuning-Madsen; Michel Brossard; Almami Dampha; Jozef Deckers; Tahar Gallali; Stephen Hallett; Robert Jones; Method Kilasara; Pieter Le Roux; Erika Micheli; Luca Montanarella; Lamourdia Thiombiano; Eric Van Ranst; Martin Yemefack; Robert Zougmore

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007

Harmonisation of the soil map of Africa at the continental scale

Olivier Dewitte, Arwyn Jones, Otto Spaargaren, Henrik Breuning-Madsen, Michel Brossard, Almami Dampha, Jozef Deckers, Tahar Gallali, Stephen Hallett, Robert Jones, Method Kilasara, Pieter Le Roux, Erika Micheli, Luca Montanarella, Lamourdia Thiombiano, Eric Van Ranst, Martin Yemefack, Robert Zougmore

Geography

78 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. To raise the awareness of the general public, stakeholders, policy makers and the science community to the importance of soil in Africa, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has produced the Soil Atlas of Africa. To that end, a new harmonised soil map at the continental scale has been produced. The steps of the construction of the new area-class map are presented, the basic information being derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). We show how the original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines. In comparison to the initial map derived from HWSD, the new map represents a correction of 13% of the soil data for the continent. The map is available for downloading.

Original language	English
Journal	Geoderma
Volume	211
Pages (from-to)	138-153
Number of pages	16
ISSN	0016-7061
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2013

Keywords

Soil map
Harmonisation
Soil classification
Soil Atlas of Africa
Google Earth

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007

Cite this

Dewitte, O., Jones, A., Spaargaren, O., Breuning-Madsen, H., Brossard, M., Dampha, A., Deckers, J., Gallali, T., Hallett, S., Jones, R., Kilasara, M., Le Roux, P., Micheli, E., Montanarella, L., Thiombiano, L., Van Ranst, E., Yemefack, M., & Zougmore, R. (2013). Harmonisation of the soil map of Africa at the continental scale. Geoderma, 211, 138-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007

Dewitte, O, Jones, A, Spaargaren, O, Breuning-Madsen, H, Brossard, M, Dampha, A, Deckers, J, Gallali, T, Hallett, S, Jones, R, Kilasara, M, Le Roux, P, Micheli, E, Montanarella, L, Thiombiano, L, Van Ranst, E, Yemefack, M & Zougmore, R 2013, 'Harmonisation of the soil map of Africa at the continental scale', Geoderma, vol. 211, pp. 138-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007

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abstract = "In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. To raise the awareness of the general public, stakeholders, policy makers and the science community to the importance of soil in Africa, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has produced the Soil Atlas of Africa. To that end, a new harmonised soil map at the continental scale has been produced. The steps of the construction of the new area-class map are presented, the basic information being derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). We show how the original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines. In comparison to the initial map derived from HWSD, the new map represents a correction of 13% of the soil data for the continent. The map is available for downloading.",

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AU - Jones, Arwyn

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AU - Deckers, Jozef

AU - Gallali, Tahar

AU - Hallett, Stephen

AU - Jones, Robert

AU - Kilasara, Method

AU - Le Roux, Pieter

AU - Micheli, Erika

AU - Montanarella, Luca

AU - Thiombiano, Lamourdia

AU - Van Ranst, Eric

AU - Yemefack, Martin

AU - Zougmore, Robert

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N2 - In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. To raise the awareness of the general public, stakeholders, policy makers and the science community to the importance of soil in Africa, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has produced the Soil Atlas of Africa. To that end, a new harmonised soil map at the continental scale has been produced. The steps of the construction of the new area-class map are presented, the basic information being derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). We show how the original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines. In comparison to the initial map derived from HWSD, the new map represents a correction of 13% of the soil data for the continent. The map is available for downloading.

AB - In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. To raise the awareness of the general public, stakeholders, policy makers and the science community to the importance of soil in Africa, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has produced the Soil Atlas of Africa. To that end, a new harmonised soil map at the continental scale has been produced. The steps of the construction of the new area-class map are presented, the basic information being derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). We show how the original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines. In comparison to the initial map derived from HWSD, the new map represents a correction of 13% of the soil data for the continent. The map is available for downloading.

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KW - Harmonisation

KW - Soil classification

KW - Soil Atlas of Africa

KW - Google Earth

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DO - 10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007

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VL - 211

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JO - Geoderma

JF - Geoderma

ER -

Harmonisation of the soil map of Africa at the continental scale

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Cite this