Soil Mapping Systems

Soil mapping has been an ongoing activity in Alberta since the early 1920's and has been conducted through cooperation between the Federal and Provincial Governments. Financial support for mapping in Alberta has declined from both levels of government over the past several years and continuation of the program has been subject to considerable discussion.

This document is a detailed review of the literature relating to mapping systems (Section II) leading to: a discussion of mapping system options and options for comparing mapping systems (Section III); a rationale for selection of mapping systems and evaluation/ comparison options (Section IV); and then a series of proposals to produce and compare map products (Section V).

One mapping system was proposed for implementation in the 1992/93 fiscal year. The top down approach to mapping was deemed most likely to meet all of the criteria as discussed in Section IV. The extrapolatory mapping option (option 4) was used in the 1991/92 field season in conjunction with the County of Forty Mile soil survey and it was proposed that this mapping system be evaluated and compared to SIL3 1:50,000 mapping. Two map comparison techniques were proposed for implementation in the 1992/93 fiscal year. These techniques will be used to compare extrapolatory and top down mapping to SIL3 1:50,000 mapping.