Soil Pilot Project
- Project research area
- Geoscience Information Solutions
- Project duration
- 01.02.2021 - 31.10.2022
Introduction
The lack of soil data is becoming a constraint for policy measures and economic development of climate-resilient agriculture and forestry. Improving the coverage, accuracy and quality of soil data is a key to achieving the climate objectives of the land use sector and to the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change. The main objective of the Soil Pilot Project is to develop an operating model for production of soil data of mineral and organic soils with sufficient accuracy and cost-effectively for the whole of Finland and are critical for actors on the land use sector and for all soil data users. The project will test modelling approaches for remotely sensed and geophysical data and machine learning to produce more accurate GIS data on surface soil type and layer thickness as well as soil type at field plot level.
As part of the project, (i) the soil data needs for the climate measures of the land use sector will be surveyed at the beginning of the project by sending out a questionnaire for the actors of the land use sector, (ii) a pilot data production, including the subsurface soil type, sediment layer thickness and soil type data of field plots, will be implemented, (iii) feedback from the operators’ experiences in using the new data will be collected, (iv) and producing proposals, cost estimates and recommendations for action will be produced for the whole of Finland in terms of a future soil data mapping programme and the data production model which can be used to survey the subsurface soil type, sediment layer thickness and the soil type of field plots, especially in poorly mapped areas of Finland.
The results of the Soil Pilot Project will strengthen the knowledge base of the land use sector and the results will contribute to achieving the climate objectives of the land use sector. By developing data sets and improving data production, land use measures can be guided and targeted to maintain and strengthen carbon sinks and stocks.
The project is being carried out under the leadership of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) in collaboration with the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke) and Radai Oy.
