NEW HORIZONS FOR SOIL RESEARCH
The UK Soil Observatory (UKSO) is an award-winning and free-to-use online service that enables everyone to view soil datasets from nine research organisations. Russell Lawley (Geo-Properties and Resources Team Lead) from the British Geological Survey explains how the resource has developed to provide significant benefits to the agricultural sector, what information you can expect to find, and how UK farming will play a major role in soil research in future. The importance of soil to the UK and its role in supporting our environment and livelihoods will likely be among one of the most critical topics of the next decade. There is still some way to go, but soilhealth and resilience are at the heart of the new agricultural policy, and research investment from commercial and academic resources is now rising. As scientists, we are continuing to sound the alarm about the important connection between soil health, sustainable agriculture and tackling the climate crisis. Each year, more attention turns to the important relationship between soil and climate. The availability of soil data and the significant increase in technology in agriculture, has been key to the transformation of people’s perceptions and understanding of what goes on beneath our feet. The ethos behind UKSO is that no one should have to start with a blank map when it comes to soils information. When UKSO started in 2014, it had a tiny number of users, accessing a handful of archived soil maps. As well as data from the British Geological Survey, other partners contributing include the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Center for Ecology and Hydrology, the James Hutton Institute, Cranfield University, Rothamsted Research, AgriFood and Biosciences Institute, Forestry Commission and Forest Research. What began as a platform that caters for a wide audience, aiming to provide everyone with free access to soils data for the purpose of educating people about soils, has quickly evolved for use by key industries such as agriculture. Today, we are approaching 190 online maps - many with regional, if not 18 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE
national coverage - and the data is being accessed by a wide range of users every week.
maps can all be viewed on the UKSO platform ‘Map Viewer’ via mobiles phones, tablets, and desktop.
This includes farmers exploring their options to move into viticulture or forestry, to agronomists and contractors checking the ‘lie of the land’ before considering new territories.
Many farm-mapping software applications can also use the web mapping services directly – for increased convenience, and better integration into farming systems.
We provide mapping for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with access to over 180 layers of data covering physical, chemical and biological characteristics including type, texture and grain size.
It also offers access to a number of resources through the UKSO website, including a series of quick-access static maps and exports from UKSO’s Map Viewer which are coupled with contact information and usage.
We are also providing more services for landscape domains and hydrology. Using UKSO, it’s possible to explore soil carbon, soil chemistry, pH, moisture, texture, type and agronomy, even upto-date surface slope data. The online
It houses policies and guides for agriculture and industry and a selection of other useful apps and services which can help you find out more about soils in your area. These resources are only likely to grow in future as the service evolves.
What can you do with UKSO? Over 180 layers of data can be viewed using the UKSO map viewer, which can be used to gather information about soil type, texture and grain size and a wide range of physical, chemical and biological properties. Users can also view the data within their own mapping software or apps. This includes Soilscapes, a 1:250,000 scale, simplified soils dataset for England and Wales which shows, in simple terms, what the likely soil conditions are at any point in the landscape by reference to one of 27 different broad types of soil. The users can benefit from extensive data about their soil chemistry as UKSO draws together data from the National Soil Inventory (NSI). Other features include soil biodiversity data relevant to topsoil microbes and organic carbon concentrations, as well as topsoil nutrients, soil moisture and soil PH data from the Countrywide Survey (CS). This includes CS topsoil ISSUE 10 | JULY 2020
