Australian Soil Water Content Maps at Six Depths, 1950-2021

Eighteen raster maps model the 15 Bar Lower Limit Volumetric Water Content of Australian soils at six standard depths from the surface to 200 cm. The Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia produced this version 1 product at a 3 arc-second resolution, aligning with GlobalSoilMap.net specifications. Data coverage spans approximately 1950 to 2021.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant-available water capacity across Australian landscapes based on the 15 Bar Lower Limit attribute.
• Assessing drought risk and soil water retention for agricultural planning using the six standardized depth layers.
• Validating hydrological models with spatially distributed soil moisture estimates at a ~90m resolution.
• Integrating soil physical property data into broader ecological or climate models based on the GlobalSoilMap standard.

Strengths

• Provides 18 distinct data layers, including upper and lower confidence limits for each of six depth intervals.
• Offers high spatial resolution of approximately 90 meters per pixel across the entire Australian continent.
• Follows the internationally recognized GlobalSoilMap.net specifications for depth intervals and data standards.
• Covers a long temporal period, approximately from 1950 to 2021.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Modelled estimate based on the Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia.

Time Range

1950-2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-10 20:07:48.206935; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia