African Soil Suitability for Irrigation in 1987

FAO soil suitability maps classify African soils for lowland and upland crop irrigation using a detailed ranking system. Data integrates soil maps, geological atlases, and climate maps at a 1:5 million scale. The dataset was compiled by FAO/UNESCO in 1987 from source maps created in the 1970s.

Use Cases

• Classify soil units by irrigation suitability (S1, S2, N1, N2) for lowland crops like flooded rice using soil component properties.
• Rank upland crop irrigation potential by evaluating slope, drainage, texture, and phase attributes for each soil unit.
• Calculate the percentage of a soil unit suitable for irrigation (e.g., >50% or 25-50%) where units contain multiple soil components.
• Refine soil suitability rankings by adjusting original classes (e.g., -1 lower rank, +1 raise rank) based on specific soil characteristics.
• Identify permanently unsuitable areas by filtering for Lithosols, Arenosols, or soils with stonic, lythic, or petrogypsic phases.

Strengths

• Integrates multiple authoritative input maps including the 1977 FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of Africa and UNESCO Geological World Atlas.
• Provides a detailed, two-tiered classification system for both lowland and upland crop irrigation suitability.
• All source maps were standardized to a consistent 1:5 million scale and Miller Oblated Stereographic projection.

Limitations

• Source maps are from the 1970s and the analysis is from 1987, making the data temporally stale for current conditions.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and spatial resolution details are unavailable.
• The dataset's license and update history are not documented.

Provenance

Source

FAO Irrigation and Water Resources Potential Database, utilizing FAO/UNESCO and UNESCO source maps.

Collection Method

Soil suitability determined by evaluating properties of all soil components (dominant soil, associations, inclusions, phases, slope, drainage, texture) against criteria for two major crop types.

Time Range

1987, with primary input maps from 1977.

Freshness

null

Geography

Africa