Soil surface ESP DSM data of the Fitzroy catchment WA, Darwin catchments and Mitchell catchment Qld generated by the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment

Soil surface ESP (exchangeable sodium percentage) is one of 18 attributes of soils chosen to underpin the land suitability assessment of the Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment (NAWRA) through the digital soil mapping process (DSM). Soil surface ESP indicates chemical properties of a soil that influence soil structure stability (potential for erosion) and water infiltration. This soil surface ESP raster data represents modelled data of ESP of the soil surface (<0.10m) expressed as a percent and is derived from analysed site data and environmental covariates. Soil surface ESP is a parameter used in land suitability assessments of factors impacting water infiltration and potential erosion eg high ESP soils have reduced surface infiltration of rainfall and irrigation water. This raster data provides improved soil information used to identify opportunities and promote detailed investigation for a range of sustainable regional development options and was created within the ‘Land Suitability’ activity of the CSIRO NAWRA. A companion dataset and statistics reflecting reliability of this data are also provided and can be found described in the lineage section of this metadata record. Processing information is supplied in ranger R scripts and attributes were modelled using a Random Forest approach.
The DSM process is described in the CSIRO NAWRA published report ‘Digital soil mapping of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment to the Government of Australia'. The land suitability assessment this dataset underpins is described in the CSIRO NAWRA published report ‘Land suitability of the Fitzroy, Darwin and Mitchell catchments. A technical report from the CSIRO Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment to the Government of Australia'.