Irish Soil Information System
Background
Farming activities have long been heralded as being a critical developer and shaper of the rural landscape and environment which we enjoy in Ireland today. Historically, farmers engaged in resource protection solely out of necessity to sustain their production capacity through generations. However, what has changed in recent times is the way in which environmental protection must be implemented at farm level: we have now entered a new era of legislation driven by environmental protection and legislation at a global and European scale.
Comparison of soil information at a European scale has led to the requirement for the harmonisation and coordination of soil data across Europe, and, in light of the demands for soil protection on a regional basis within member states there is a growing need to support policy with harmonised soil information.
Critical to the successful development of such strategies is the knowledge on the location of our soils, and their associated properties. To date, Ireland has a national soil map at a scale of 1:575,000, with only half the country mapped in significant detail. Over 450 soil series have been identified in Ireland, each of them different in properties, with different environmental and agronomic responses.
Soil Map and Information System
The Irish Soil Information System project has developed a national association soil map for Ireland at a scale of 1:250,000, together with an associated digital soil information system, providing both spatial and quantitative information on soil types and properties across the country. Both the map and the information system are made freely available to the public through this website. This major project began in 2008 with Phase 1 ending in 2014. Phase 2 continues into 2015 with the aim of producing derivative soil attribute maps for inclusion within the system
Objectives
The Irish Soil Information System project will develop a national soil map of 1:250,000 and an associated digital soil information system, providing both spatial and quantitative information on soil types and properties across Ireland. Both the map and the information system will be freely available to the public through a designated website. This project began in 2008 and will continue for a period of 5 years.
Materials & Methods
The Irish Soil Information System project will uniquely combine the latest spatial mapping technologies with tried-and-tested ground-truthing: soil pits, at a national scale. Using existing historical data from the An Foras Talúntais soil survey from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, which surveyed 44% of the country. This project will seek to map the remaining half of the country by generating predictive soil maps based on satellite imagery, digital terrain mapping, and other geo-environmental GIS layers. It will then proceed to calibrate and verify these models through an intensive 2.5 year traditional field sampling campaign from 2010 to 2012; this campaign will provide hard soils data on 300 new reference profiles.
It is hoped that this project will form the basis for more accurate soil data in Ireland at a national scale and will provide to the public, data which to date has not been accessible. This will provide the opportunity for soil specific nutrient advice and better research opportunities in spatial soil mapping and modelling in the future.
Project Team
Teagasc
- Dr Rachel Creamer
- Réamonn Fealy
- Eddie McDonald
- Dr. Brian Reidy
- Dr Rogier Schulte
- Patrick Sills
- Iolanda Simo
Cranfield
- Ronald Corstanje
- Steve Hallett
- Jacqueline Hannam
- Ann Holden
- Thomas Mayr
- Ian Truckell
- Joanna Zawadzka