Global High-Resolution Soil Profiles for DSSAT Crop Models

A global soil profile database designed for crop simulation models like DSSAT. The dataset integrates soil property data from SoilGrids 1km and ISRIC-AfSIS projects, processed onto a 5 arc-minute grid. It was developed by the International Research Institute For Climate And Society to provide gridded soil inputs for agricultural modeling.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing crop growth models based on derived soil hydraulic properties like saturated hydraulic conductivity and water content at field capacity.
• Assessing soil suitability and constraints for agriculture based on mapped properties such as bulk density, organic carbon, and clay percentage.
• Evaluating model uncertainty for crop yield projections using the provided uncertainty maps for organic carbon and soil water content.
• Conducting spatial analysis of soil resources for agricultural planning using the 5 arc-minute global grid.

Strengths

• Integrates two established high-resolution (1km) global soil databases: SoilGrids and ISRIC-AfSIS.
• Provides six key soil properties directly as DSSAT inputs and derives critical hydraulic properties using a pedo-transfer function.
• Includes uncertainty maps for organic carbon and soil water content at wilting point for the top 15 cm soil layer.
• Output is formatted as DSSAT-compatible *.SOL files for each country at a standardized 5 arc-minute resolution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

International Research Institute For Climate And Society, integrating data from SoilGrids and ISRIC-AfSIS projects.

Collection Method

Data from source databases was processed onto a standard grid, with some properties derived via pedo-transfer functions.

Time Range

The temporal coverage of the source soil data is not specified.

Freshness

The description references SoilGrids released in 2014, but the dataset's own creation date is unknown.

Geography

Global coverage, with specific mention of efforts for more accurate data in Africa.