Global Soil and Terrain Database (WORLD-SOTER)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners -- the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the European Soil Bureau (ESB), and national soil institutes -- are working towards a common World Soil and Terrain Resources [SOTER (SO for soils, TER for terrain)] Map covering the globe at 1:5 million scale. The main objectives of this work are: (1) to provide sound soil and terrain resources information for use in global and continental models to simulate food production potentials, climatic change, river flow simulation, livestock distribution, research priorities, land constraints, and (very) general land management advice; (2) to provide an educational tool to the soil science community; and (3) to provide harmonized norms for soil mapping, soil classification, soil analysis and interpretation of soil resources information.

SOTER is a methodology for storing and handling soils and terrain data. The SOTER program provides an orderly arrangement of natural resource data in such a way that these data can be readily accessed, combined, and analyzed from the point of view of potential use and production, in relation to food requirements, environmental impact, and conservation. Fundamental in the SOTER approach is the mapping of areas with a distinctive, often repetitive pattern of landform, morphology, slope, parent material, and soils at 1:1 million scale (SOTER units). Each SOTER unit is linked through a geographic information system (GIS) with a computerized database containing, in theory, all available attributes on topography, landform and terrain, soils, climate, vegetation, and land use. In this way, each type of information or each combination of attributes can be displayed spatially as a separate layer or overlay or in tabular form. The methodology is explained in the SOTER Procedures Manual (ftp://ftp.fao.org/agl/agll/docs/sotereng.pdf).

The SOTER concept was originally developed for application at country (national) scale and national SOTER maps have been prepared, with ISRIC's assistance, for Uruguay (1:1 M), Kenya (1:1 M), Hungary (1:500,000), and Jordan and Syria (1:500,000).

Several continental SOTER databases have been prepared and are available on CD-ROMs from FAO. These include SOTER databases for northeastern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, north and central Eurasia, and central and eastern Europe. [Note: Separate metadata reports for the continental SOTER databases have been registered in the ORNL DAAC Mercury Metadata Database for Global and Regional Environmental Data.] SOTER Europe and SOTER Southern Africa are in preparation.

The different SOTER puzzle-pieces will eventually be correlated and integrated into a unique 1:5 million scale WORLD SOTER, using whatever best soil profile information is available, resulting in a significant update of the global soil and terrain information source. In the interim, FAO, ISRIC, and the European Commission Joint Research Centre have recently updated the 1990 FAO Map of World Soil Resources (1:25 Million Scale) that is generalized from the FAO/Unesco Soil Map of the World (1:5 Million Scale) (FAO, 1971-1981). The Map of World Soil Resources has been redrawn under the SOTER Programme to incorporate the findings of all regional SOTER projects and additional data provided by the United States and Canada. In addition, the FAO legend has been replaced by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) as a classification system, and the updated map also contains topographical information. The updated Map of World Soil Resources (January 2003) can be viewed and downloaded at [http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/wrb/wrbmaps/htm/soilres.htm].