Abstract
The question has to be asked why – given the substantial advances in quantitative techniques over the years – ‘full’ Digital Soil Mapping has not been mainstreamed further and harnessed to the problems soil information can help address. This paper suggests some reasons for a slow adoption, causes for optimism for a wider adoption than at present and – using a case study – demonstrates the ease of further development at national scale. Finally, we propose how a major effort of digital soil mapping could support development in Africa, outlining the opportunities and obstacles that await contributors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Cook, S.E., Corner, R.J., Grealish, G. and Chartres, C.J., 1996. A Rule-based system to map soil properties. Soil Science Society of America Journal 60, 1893–1900.
Dercon, S., 2002. Income risk, coping strategies and safety nets. The World Bank Research Observer 17(2), 141–166.
Diaz-Nieto, J., Cook, S., Lundy, M., Fisher, M. Sanchez, D. and Guevara, E. 2006. A system of drought insurance for poverty alleviation in rural areas. Final Report for BMZ project SLB-50. Bonn.
Douthwaite, B., 2002. Enabling Innovation: A practical guide to understanding and fostering technical change. Zed Books.
FAO, 2000. Digital Soil Map Of The World And Derived Soil Properties on CD-ROM. FAO, Rome. http://www.fao.org/AG/agl/agll/dsmw.htm.
Henderson, B., Bui, E., Moran, C., Simon, D. and Carlile, P., 2001. ASRIS: Continental-scale soil property predictions from point data. CSIRO Land and Water Technical Report 28/01. CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra.
Hijmans, R.J., Cameron, S., Parra, J., Jones, P.G. and Jarvis, A., 2005. WorldClim: Very high resolution global terrestrial climate surfaces for monthly temperature and precipitation. International Journal of Climatology 25(15), 1965–1978.
Hudson, B.D., 1992, The soil survey as paradigm-based science. Soil Science Society of America Journal 56, 836–841.
IPCC, 2001. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (6th Session, Geneva, Feb. 2001).
Jarvis, A., Rubiano, J., Nelson, A., Farrow, A. and Mulligan, M., 2004. Practical use of SRTM data in the tropics – Comparisons with digital elevation models generated from cartographics data. Working Document no. 198, 32 pp. CIAT, Cali, Colombia, available from: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/PDF/Jarvis4.pdf.
Jones, P. G. and Thornton, P.K., 2003. The potential impacts of climate change on maize production in Africa and Latin America in 2055. Global Environmental Change 13, 51–59.
Marchand, P., 2006. IDIS. Integrated Data Information System. URL: http://dw.iwmi.org/ dataplatform/Home.aspx.
Nash, J., 2005. Sustainable Development Strategies in Agriculture and Rural Development a paper presented during the WTO Symposium on Trade and Sustainable Development held on 10–11 October, 2005.
Pracilio, G., Asseng, S., Cook, S.E., Hodgson, G., Wong, M.T.F., Adams, M.L. and Hatton, T.J., 2003. Estimating spatially variable deep drainage across a central-eastern wheatbelt catchment, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 54, 789.
Pretty, J., 1999. Can Sustainable Agriculture Feed Africa? New Evidence On Progress, Processes And Impacts. Environment, Development and Sustainability 1, 253–274.
Rowe, W.D., 1994. Understanding Uncertainty. Risk Analysis 14(5), 743–750.
Valentine, K.W.G., 1983. Guest Editorial: Another way of doing things. Soil Survey and Land Evaluation 3, 29–30.
Webster, R., 1968. Fundamental objections to the 7th approximation. Journal of Soil Science 19, 354–366.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cook, S., Jarvis, A., Gonzalez, J. (2008). A New Global Demand for Digital Soil Information. In: Hartemink, A.E., McBratney, A., Mendonça-Santos, M.d. (eds) Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8592-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8592-5_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8591-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8592-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)