SADCC (Southern African Development Community) Soils, Africa

The SADCC (Southern African Development Community (SADC) was formerly the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference) soil maps were prepared for the entire SADCC region, Angola, Botswana, Malawi,
Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as part of the Regional Inventory of Agricultural Resource Base (RIARB), of the SADCC Food Security Programme based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The Soil maps were compiled from original data from the countries redrawn and digitized. Everything was digitized in AUTOCAD including physiography, provinces/regions and drought security. The maps in the
miscellaneous section at a scale of 1:2 million (Defense Mapping Agency, DMA) and 1:1 million Operational Navigation Charts (ONC) were purchased from Stanfords Intl. Map Centre in the United Kingdom. The
maps from member states at at scales of 1:250 000 or smaller. All were digitized in Lambert conformal Projection. Several sheets were compiled between 1965 and 1977 and revised between 1981 and 1986.

The soil maps from the different countries were then digitized from the national survey maps. After this, one system was developed to unify the different national maps as they all had different classification systems. Therefore bordering soil units along national
boundaries were again looked at and sometimes reclassified so that one common unit was created,