Unifying regional soil maps at different scales to generate a national soil map for the United Arab Emirates applying digital soil mapping techniques

Mahmoud Ali Abdelfattah and Colin Pain

Journal of Maps, 2012, vol. 8, issue 4, 392-405

Abstract: Soil information and soil maps have been compiled and are available for the entire United Arab Emirates (UAE), however, no national soil map has yet been published. Soil maps of Abu Dhabi Emirate (84% of the UAE), and the Northern Emirates (11%) were published in 2009 and 2012, respectively while a soil map of Dubai Emirate (5%) was published in 2005, but with different standards and procedures. The aim of the present study is to unify the three regional soil maps into a national soil map for the entire UAE. Because the Dubai soil map is different from the other two maps, the original boundaries and soil classifications had to be modified. Digital soil mapping techniques, including use of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model, were applied to modify, integrate, and correlate the soil map of Dubai Emirate. SRTM was used to guide line placement of the Dubai map units' boundaries. It was especially helpful for the Torripsamments great group, which was separated into three classes based on relief. ArcGIS was used to compile and manage geographic information, and the USDA Soil Taxonomy was used to classify soils. A generalized soil map for the UAE at a scale of 1:700,000 was produced. The map consists of 15 map units named by the great groups that dominate each unit. The overall extent and percentage of each great group within each emirate is calculated and presented. The map provides a general overview of the distribution of soils making up the UAE.

Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17445647.2012.746744 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjomxx:v:8:y:2012:i:4:p:392-405

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjom20

DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2012.746744

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Maps is currently edited by Dr Mike Smith, Dr Jeremy Porter and Dr Dick Berg

More articles in Journal of Maps from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().