Ontario Soil Survey Data Mapped by County, 1920s-1990s

Consolidated soil data mapped on a county basis, digitally stitched and standardized from surveys conducted between the 1920s and 1990s. The product incorporates soil information from a variety of map scales and was created by the Government of Ontario. The database contains descriptive information including slope class, Canada Land Inventory ranking, stoniness, drainage class, and texture.

Use Cases

• Model agricultural land suitability based on Canada Land Inventory (CLI) ranking and soil texture.
• Assess land drainage and erosion risk based on slope class and drainage class attributes.
• Analyze soil composition and physical constraints for construction or conservation based on stoniness and texture data.

Strengths

• Data collection spans multiple decades, from the 1920s to the 1990s.
• Product is a consolidated, digitally stitched map that addresses inconsistencies across county boundaries.
• Includes multiple descriptive soil attributes such as slope class, CLI ranking, and drainage class.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and methodological bias inherent to surveys conducted over a 70-year period.

Provenance

Source

Government of Ontario

Collection Method

Mapped by soil surveyors and consolidated from individual county or regional municipality surveys.

Time Range

1920s to 1990s

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 13:39:16.337093; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ontario, Canada, on a county basis