African Soil Texture and Slope Data from 1987 FAO Map

A 10 arc-minute resolution raster dataset maps the near-surface soil texture and slope for Africa, derived from the 1974 FAO Soil Map of the World. Compiled by L. Zobler for the Global Ecosystems Database Project, this 1987 release provides foundational land surface properties for climate modeling. The data is georeferenced to match contemporary global vegetation datasets.

Use Cases

• Parameterize soil texture classes and surface slope for land surface models in African climate simulations.
• Analyze spatial correlations between soil texture data and vegetation types from the referenced Matthews dataset.
• Create baseline maps of dominant soil units for historical land use change studies in Africa.
• Validate or downscale modern soil property datasets using this foundational 1-degree cell raster.

Strengths

• Global 1-degree cell resolution (approximately 10 arc-minutes) ensuring compatibility with other global datasets.
• Derived from the authoritative FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World, a standard reference.

Limitations

• Data represents conditions circa 1974 (source map) and is temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
• Each cell contains only the dominant soil unit, missing sub-grid variability and detailed soil profiles.
• Raster format is IDRISI, which may require conversion for use in modern GIS software.

Provenance

Source

FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World (1974), digitized by L. Zobler.

Collection Method

Digitized compilation of the analog FAO soil map into a 1-degree cell raster matrix.

Time Range

Source map from 1974; dataset publication date is 1987.

Freshness

null

Geography

Africa (as part of a global dataset, input specifies Africa focus).