Australian Soil Atlas at 1:2,000,000 Scale

Digital Atlas of Australian Soils is a digital version of the Atlas of Australian Soils at a 1:2,000,000 scale, created by Northcote et al. between 1960 and 1968. The dataset is provided as Arc/Info coverages in EXPORT ArcInfo Interchange Format, with a total size of 26 Megabytes. It was produced by scanning and digitizing hardcopy soil maps, with explanatory notes accompanying the original materials.

Use Cases

• Classify soil types across Australia using the digitized soil map polygons for land capability assessment.
• Analyze spatial patterns of soil properties derived from the 1:2,000,000 scale map for regional environmental modeling.
• Integrate the soil atlas coverages with other geospatial layers like climate or vegetation data for comprehensive landscape studies.

Strengths

• Provides national coverage of Australian soils at a consistent 1:2,000,000 scale.
• Includes explanatory notes that accompany the original soil maps for context.
• Dataset size of 26 Megabytes indicates a manageable file for distribution and analysis.

Limitations

• Data is derived from maps created between 1960-1968, making it temporally stale and potentially not reflecting current conditions.
• The 1:2,000,000 scale is suitable for continental or regional analysis but lacks detail for local or site-specific studies.
• Original data collection methodology (hardcopy map digitization) may introduce spatial inaccuracies or generalization errors.

Provenance

Source

Northcote et al. (1960-1968), Atlas of Australian Soils; processed by NRIC, Australia.

Collection Method

Scanned and digitized from hardcopy maps, converted to Arc/Info coverages.

Time Range

1960-1968 (original map publication period)

Geography

Australia