Digital Soil Data and Mapping

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Overview

Our goal is to provide detailed and complete soils coverage of British Columbia to support sustainability (e.g. sensitivity to biomass removals, sensitivity to soil compaction, storage of soil carbon) and socio-economic (e.g. site, landscape and estate level planning, prediction of productivity for various crops, support of BEC adaptation) objectives.  Ultimately, the information derived from this project will help managers, planners and modellers who are interested in spatial distribution of natural resources and how it influences management.  As an example, estimates of biomass supply potential could be improved using attributes of the specific locations that might affect harvest seasonality, logistics, or sustainability of harvest. These aspects of supply and sustainability are very likely affected by the soil conditions, which will be a key product of our work.

Overall objectives:

  • To improve the accessibility of existing soils information in BC
  • Speed up the process of making analog soil maps and information available in a digital format
  • Correlate and clean up existing analog and digital soil datasets
  • Develop improved databases to link soil information to digitized maps
  • Make these products available to people who need this information
  • Use predictive soil mapping techniques to generate new information for soils throughout BC and create a digital soil map (DSM) for the entire province
  • Use remotely sensed data for monitoring sustainability of forest practices
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Projects

  • Digital soil data and mapping
  • Remotely sensed soil data and its use
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Recent Publications

  • Digital soil mapping at multiple scales in British Columbia, Canada
    Smith, S., C. Bulmer, E. Flager, G. Frank and D. Filatow 2010. In Program and Abstracts, 4th Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping, 24-26 May 2010, Rome, Italy. pg 17.
    http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/misc/misc085.pdf

    Digital soil mapping (DSM) is being implemented to improve soil information for the Canadian province of British Columbia.  This paper reports on progress made in two related initiatives.  The first involves spatial disaggregation of detailed/semi-detailed (1:20,000 - 1:125,000), harmonized, legacy soil survey information using a 25 m DEM and several automated landform classification systems including a fuzzy land element approach, unsupervised nested-means algorithm and a simple topographic position index.  Selective landform facet classes and additional co-variates including solar radiation and ecological subzones are used as input variables to ArcSIE software to predict the occurrence of individual soil series and their attributes over a semi-arid high relief watershed of approximately 8,200 km2 in southern British Columbia.  A second initiative evaluates techniques utilizing map components from the 1:1,000,000 Soil Landscapes of Canada map series to predict soil attributes on a 100 m DEM.  The province-wide prediction efforts address some of the key data and methodological challenges facing the GlobalSoilMap.net project for the mountainous western Canadian landscape where soil maps are readily available for many areas but point (pedon) data are limited.

  • British Columbia Terrain, Soil, and Ecosystem Mapping Databases
    Streamline Watershed Management Bulletin Vol. 12/No. 2 Spring 2009
    http://www.forrex.org/streamline/ISS40/Streamline_Vol12_No2_art3.pdf

    Do you ever need to know the location or extent of sensitive soils? Of riparian or wet land zones? Of areas of potential slope instability? Or of areas of very thin materials over rock? What about finding where there are potential erodible soils as sources of stream sediments? Or potential sources of aggregates for road building? Or potential habitat for burrowing species? Terrain and Ecosystem Mapping inventories can be used to answer these questions.  This article provides an introduction to the datasets available and discusses how to access this data.

  • Soil and Ecological Interpretations of Airborne γ-Radiometrics.  Exploratory investigations in the former Cariboo Forest Region, British Columbia
    http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/misc/misc085.pdf

    Exploration of the potential applications of airborne radiometrics to predictive mapping and other ecological applications: in particular, to improve the mapping of coarse- and fine-textured soil materials.  The study made use of publicly-available γ-radiometric surveys in Cariboo District

  • Protocol for Soil Resource Stewardship Monitoring: Cutblock Level
    Curran, M, S Dubé, C Bulmer, S Berch, B Chapman, G Hope, S Currie, P Courtin and M Kranabetter. 2009. Forest and Range Evaluation Program, B.C. Min. For. Ran. and B.C. Min. Env., Victoria, BC.
    http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/ftp/hfp/external/!publish/frep/indicators/Indicators-Soils-Protocol-2009-May26-2009.pdf

    The soil conservation provisions in British Columbia's Forest and Range Practices Act are intended to protect the productive and hydrologic capacity of the soil. Except for obvious losses of productive sites through access development, the Act, regulations, and this process for resource stewardship monitoring and effectiveness evaluation consider site conditions, observable remotely and/or on the ground at the time of completing operations as a proxy for longer-term effects.

  • Soil Risk Matrix for Off-Road Vehicle Damage (Changes) to Soil: Lake Koocanusa Area - Final version May 28, 2010.
    Mike Curran, PhD, PAg, Research Soil Scientist, BC Forest Service, Nelson
    http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/misc/misc086.pdf

    Several factors contribute to the potential for “Damage to the Environment: Changes to Soil” arising from off-road vehicle use on forest and range soils. These include environmental and operator/equipment factors. This document focuses on the environmental factors, but also mentions some operator/equipment factors that are likely just as, or more important. This information, along with other information and the knowledge and experience of C&E and District staff, should likely be conveyed to off-roaders in extension efforts aimed at preventing the damage from occurring.