This data set consists of maps of various soil characteristics for all of Russia. The maps are available as ESRI Shapefiles and they are accompanied by databases of soil profiles and related characteristics. The soil classification Shapefile was generalized from the standard 1:2,500,000 soil map of Russia (Fridland, 1988). Several different soil classifications are presented as well as detailed soil characteristics. Additionally, investigators compiled two databases (.dbf files) of detailed soil characteristics from 234 measured soil profiles. These data were extracted from a larger collection entitled Land Resources of Russia. Data and documentation © 2002 copyright International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Land Resources of Russia -- Maps of Soil Characteristics, Version 1
This is the most recent version of these data.
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Geographic Coverage |
FTP data can be downloaded through a Web browser or command line via FTP. For help downloading data through an FTP client, go to the How to access data using an FTP client support page.
As a condition of using these data, you must cite the use of this data set using the following citation. For more information, see our Use and Copyright Web page.
Stolbovoi, V. and I. Savin 2002. Land Resources of Russia -- Maps of Soil Characteristics, Version 1. [Indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/. [Date Accessed].Detailed Data Description
The maps are in a vector format stored as ESRI Shapefile spatial data format. The Shapefiles are most easily imported into ESRI's ArcView, but most other GIS packages can import ESRI Shapefiles. ESRI also provides a free basic GIS package, ArcExplorer, on the ESRI web site. Databases are stored as .dbf files. These can be imported into most spreadsheets and databases, and some GIS packages including ArcInfo.
Each Shapefile consists of three files: filename.dbf (attribute data), filename.shp (feature geometry) and filename.shx (feature geometry index). All maps were converted from e00 files to ESRI Shapefiles using the ARCSHAPE command. When necessary, field names in attribute tables were changed so that they conformed to the 10 character limit for field names in dBase .dbf
.
File names are:
ggd601_soil_russia.dbf |
soil attribute data |
ggd601_soil_russia.shp |
soil feature geometry |
ggd601_soil_russia.shx |
soil feature geometry index |
ggd601_soilnat_russia.dbf |
soil naturalness attribute data |
ggd601_soilnat_russia.shp |
soil naturalness feature geometry |
ggd601_soilnat_russia.shx |
soil naturalness feature geometry index |
profiles.dbf |
detailed soil profile database |
soil_adjusted_characteristics.dbf |
summary soil profile database |
Following is a quick tutorial for defining the projection of this data set in ArcGIS. These steps were tested with ArcGIS 9:
1. Open ArcToolbox. Select Data Management Tools --> Projections and Transformations --> Define Projection.
2. In the Define Projection window, select an input shapefile for the "Input Dataset or Feature Class" field. The "Coordinate System" field now says "Unknown." Click the icon to the right of the "Coordinate System" field.
3. In the Spatial Reference Properties window that appears, click Select to select a predefined coordinate system. Click Projected Coordinate Systems --> Polar. Select North Pole Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area.prj. Click Add.
4. Back in the Spatial Reference Properties window, click Modify. Change the parameters to the following:
False_Easting: 0.0
False_Northing: 0.0
Central_Meridian: 100.0
Latitude_Of_Origin: 45.0
Leave the "Linear Unit" as meters. In the "Geographic Coordinate System" section, click Modify. For "Datum" and "Spheroid" select <custom>. For "Semimajor axis" and "Semiminor axis" enter 6370997.24063. Click OK until the Define Projection wizard runs. The shapefiles are now projected.
Note: the Land Resources of Russia site defines the projection parameters as follows, for those who use the "projectdefine" Arc command:
Projection: Lambert Azimuthal
Units: Meters
Datum: None
Parameters:
6370997.24063 (radius of the sphere of reference)
100 0 0.000 (longitude of center of projection)
45 0 0.000 (latitude of center of projection)
0.00000 (false easting (meters))
0.00000 (false northing (meters))
While all spatial datasets on the "Land Resources of Russia" CD are stored in the Lambert Azimuthal projection, differences occur between the coverages in terms of resolution and scale. In particular, the outer boundary of Russia, islands, and water bodies may vary between data sets.
The soil classification coverage was generalized from the standard 1:2,500,000 soil map of Russia (Fridland, 1988). Investigators aggregated the thematic content or soil classes of the source map and spatially aggregated the mapping units to accommodate a smaller scale presentation. General soil classifications include the Russian Soil Classification, the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Taxonomy, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's major soil groups, and the World Reference Base soil groups. Detailed soil characteristics include:
- total available water capacity
- soil drainage
- bulk density
- cation exchange capacity
- methane production
- topsoil acidity
- nitrogen content
- CO2 respiration
- organic carbon 30cm
- organic carbon 50cm
- organic carbon 100cm
- organic carbon 200cm
Investigators also created a soil "naturalness" coverage. Soil naturalness is a measure of human impact on soils. The coverage was created from a series of overlays and, therefore, is presented as an individual coverage.
Additionally, investigators compiled two databases (.dbf files) of detailed soil characteristics from 234 measured soil profiles. These databases each contain a field linked to the soil code in the soil classification coverage. The databases also contain latitude and longitude coordinates allowing them to be converted into spatial coverage.
More detailed information of these data can be found in the comprehensive description and the technical summary of the coverages and databases provided by the investigators.
The projection is Lambert Azimuthal, with the following parameters:
Units: meters
Datum: None
Parameters:
6370997.24063 (radius of the sphere of reference)
100 0 0.000 (longitude of center of projection)
45 0 0.000 (latitude of center of projection)
0.00000 (false easting (meters))
0.00000 (false northing (meters))
Software and Tools
Data Acquisition and Processing
References and Related Publications
Contacts and Acknowledgments
Vladimir Stolbovoi
Dr. in Geography
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Austria.
Igor Savin
Dr. in Agricultural Sciences
Dokuchaev Soil Institute
Russia.
Boris Sheremet
Dr. in Biology
Dokuchaev Soil Institute
Russia.
Document Information
Please cite these data as follows:
Stolbovoi, V. and I. Savin. 2002. Maps of soil characteristics. In Stolbovoi V. and I. McCallum, eds. Land resources of Russia. Laxenburg, Austria: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Science. CD-ROM. Distributed by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder.
DOCUMENT CREATION DATE
16 September 2002
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