Urban Forest Soil Polygons from Digitized Geological Maps

Polygon data represents approximate native soil sub-bases and derived textures for Melbourne's urban forest. The data is based on digitized maps from the Geological Survey of Victoria circa 1956. Soil types are expected to be extensively modified due to urban development.

Use Cases

• Analyze soil polygon distribution to identify predominant soil sub-base types in urban forest planning
• Cross-reference soil texture data with tree health metrics from urban forest datasets
• Map historical soil conditions against current land use for environmental change studies
• Use polygon geometry for spatial analysis of soil type coverage across Melbourne

Strengths

• Data sourced from the authoritative Geological Survey of Victoria
• Available in multiple spatial formats including SHP, JSON, CSV, and GEOJSON
• Released under a permissive CC-BY license by the City of Melbourne

Limitations

• Soil classifications are from 1956 maps and likely do not reflect current, extensively modified urban conditions
• No row or feature count is provided to assess dataset scale
• Lacks modern soil survey data or validation against contemporary samples

Provenance

Source

Geological Survey of Victoria

Collection Method

Digitized from historical geological maps circa 1956

Time Range

c. 1956

Freshness

Last updated March 2026, though underlying source data is historical.

Geography

Melbourne, Australia