FAO World Soil Resources

In 1990 a Map of World Soil Resources was completed at scale 1:25.000.000, generalized from the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map or the World at scale 1:5.000.000 (FAO, 1971 - 1981). The map was issued on the occasion of the 14th International Congress of Soil Science held in Kyoto, Japan in 1990. Since then new material has become available, the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World has been partly updated under the SOTER Programme and the FAO legend has been replaced by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). In 1998 the latter was adopted by the International Union of Soil Sciences as the standard for soil correlation and nomenclature. In the light of these new developments it was decided to prepare an updated version of the generalized Map of the World Soil Resources at 1:25.000.000. The updating exercise covered: - the switch from the original map projection to a Flat Polar Quartic projection - the conversion of the FAO legend into the WRB classification - the incorporation of additional soil data obtained from new or revised soil map sources - the matching, when possible of soil unit boundaries with major landforms