> Soil and land management > Soils of South Australia

Describing soil and land

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Summary

A range of important characteristics of our state's soil and land assets have been described and mapped to improve the understanding and management of these vital resources.

This page will help you understand:

the kinds of soil attribute mapping datasets available for South Australia
formatting differences between available soil datasets.

Soil characteristics

South Australia's soil characteristics, also referred to as ‘soil and land attributes’, have been described and mapped using quantitative and semi-quantitative attribute data. This data is presented using a soil landscape map unit framework, whereby map units contain data-rich, spatially undefined components. This approach allows the complexity and diversity of soil and landscapes to be captured at an appropriate scale.

This mapping framework is described in more detail in the following page:

Mapping soil and land

Available datasets

The soil and land attribute spatial datasets are in two key formats: ‘SA-format’ and ‘National-format’.

These reflect alternative sets of descriptive attributes and, importantly, differences in the type of conceptual element that is being described (i.e. landscape components vs soil components). This is explained further via the links below and in this soil and land mapping fact sheet.

Both SA-format and National-format datasets provide comprehensive and consistent data that can be used for comparing conditions across the state, and in a range of environmental assessments and models. Both datasets have been developed by the department Soil and Land Program following standards and criteria outlined in:

Maschmedt (2002) for SA-format data
McKenzie et al. (2012) for national-format data (as used in the Australian National Soil Information System).

A full list of soil attributes, together with statewide maps and selected factsheets for each of these dataset formats is summarised on the following pages:

Difference between SA-format and national-format data

These two data formats are designed for different analytical purposes.

To decide which data format is applicable for your project, you need to consider your mapping or analytical purpose, your desired data type, and your desired mapping scale.

	SA-format data	National-format data
Purpose	Localised land management and state-level planning	Broad-scale environmental modelling and reporting
Data types	Polygon and point data	Raster and point data
Data structure	Data presented as a single layer	Data presented as several layers down the soil profile (multiple soil depths)
Mapping scale	Finer detail e.g. 1:100,000 or 1:50,000	National coverage (1:1000,000) e.g. 90 m x 90 m rasters from Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia