Soil Geographic Databases — Africa

Index: (Sub)Continent | Individual countries

(Sub)Continent

• Soil Atlas of Africa and its associated Soil Map
  A polygon map at design scale 1:3M as developed in the FAO/JRC Soil Atlas of Africa, showing the dominant WRB Reference Soil Group and associated qualifiers. Download by request; the PDF of the Atlas is also available for download. "The map has been derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). The original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines"
   
• Africa Soil Information Service Soil Databases
  The Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) is developing continent-wide digital soil maps for sub-Saharan Africa using new types of soil analysis and statistical methods, and conducting agronomic field trials in selected sentinel sites. These efforts include the compilation and rescue of legacy soil profile data, new data collection and analysis, and system development for large-scale soil mapping using remote sensing imagery and crowdsourced ground observations.
  *** Offline, 03-Dec-2023, link kept here in case it becomes available ***
   
• iSDA Open access soil data for Africa
  iSDA is the successor to AfSIS (previous list entry). As of 01-04-2023 this dataset has 49225 entries, with analytical data for the usual soil properties as well as micronutrients and Al. The profile data are also available at this github site.
   
• SubSaharan Africa nutrient maps at 250 m resolution
  Spatial predictions of content of soil macro and micro-nutrients across Sub-Saharan Africa at 250 m spatial resolution for the 0-30 cm depth interval Model training based on soil samples from 59,000 locations from the AfSIS, EthioSIS, One Acre Fund, VitalSigns and other legacy soil databases and an extensive stack of remote sensing covariates, as well as landform, lithologic and land cover maps.
   
• iSDAsoil
  Gridded soil property predictive maps at 30 m horizontal resolution for sub-Saharan Africa. Soil chemical, physical and nutrients; agronomy information including a partial implementation of the Fertility Capability Classification (FCC) system of soil-related limitations. The claim is that these maps "make soil properties and advisory services possible at the level of the single small farm." From iSDA-Africa, an initiative to bring "smart farming" to this region. This is a followup to the AfSIS project.
  Available for download via Zenodo Also available as a "data cube" including agronomy data, see Soil and Agronomy Data Cube for Africa at 30-m spatial resolution.  
   
• European digital archive on soil maps (EuDASM)
  Scanned soil maps available for countries in Africa.
   
• SOTERSAF
  SOil and TERrain Database for eight southern African countries, at a scale of 1:2M.
   

Individual countries

• SOTERCAF
  SOil and TERrain Database for the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi, at scales of 1:2M (DRC), and 1:1M (Rwanda and Burundi).
   
• Rwanda Soil Information Service  
   
• SOTER for Senegal and the Gambia
  SOil and TERrain Database for the Gambia, at a scale of 1:1M
   
• SOTER for Kenya
  SOil and TERrain Database for Kenya, at a scale of 1:1M
  • SOTER for the Upper Tana River catchment
    SOil and TERrain Database at a scale of 1:250k
     
• SOTER for Republic of South Africa
  SOil and TERrain Database for Republic of South Africa, at a scale of 1:1M
   
• e-SOTER database for Morocco
  e-SOTER is a methodology for producing SOil and TERrain bases according to a procedures manual. The database is an ESRI shapefiles at a nominal 1:1M scale.
   
• SOTER for Tunisia
  SOil and TERrain Database for Tunisia, at a scale of 1:1M
   
• Data for: Free, open, quantitative and adaptable digital soil map and database for Nigeria
  Vector GIS coverage, design scale of 1:650k, explained in this paper. Soil Taxonomy Great Group, surface textural class, drainage class, general crop suitability for the dominant soil
   
• Lesotho Soil Information System  
   
• Soil Information System for Uganda -- in development  
   
• Ghana Soil Information Hub -- in development  
   
• National Soil Information System of Ethiopia  
   
• Tanzania Soil Information Service (TanSIS) -- at OSF