Harmonization of Soil Information in the Alps
Technical and Operational Procedures
Swiss-Italian ECALP Pilot Area
Stefano Brenna, Alberto Rocca
ERSAF – Agency for Agriculture and Forests - Lombardy
Ispra, 3-4 February 2005
Swiss-Italian ECALP pilot area
Lombardy - “state of art”
topics
• cartographic issues
• exchange format
• first results
• workplan
Cartographic issues - Swiss-Italian Pilot Area
ECALP GIS Layer:
administrative boundaries
and lakes
Coordinate system:
ETRS-LAEA
Switzerland
Italy, Lombardy
geography
surface distribution
Unit
Km
[Xmin,Ymin]
[4236, 2522]
pixel
Range X
[4236-4256]
area (km2)
Range Y
[2522-2542]
area (%)
Italy
Switzerland
border
total
218
127
55
400
243.30
156.70
400
60.8
39,2
100
Projection to Lambert coordinate system
ERSAF GIS Layers:
soil and land use maps
(scale 1:250.000)
coordinate system:
origin: Gauss-Boaga West
destination: ETRS_LAEA
DATUM transformation
ED_1950 to WGS_1984_1
surface distribution
pixel
area (km2)
area (%)
Result of spatial overlay of
ERSAF GIS layer with
ECALP GIS layer:
Italy
Switzerland
border
total
200
(218)
125
(127)
75
(55)
400
237.51
162.49
400
area pro Italy
59.4
40.6
100
area not present in ECALP data
area pro Switzerland
Geometric incongruity of the maps at the Swiss-Italian border
Possible situations for “shared” pixels
1 over information
2 lack of information
3 both over
and lack of information
4 no information (in theory)
Grid transformation in Gauss-Boaga West coordinate system
ECALP GIS layer: alpine 1k grid
coordinate system:
origin: ETRS_LAEA
destination: Gauss-Boaga West
- grid is not perfectly squared
- grid cells sides are segmented
- grid cells area: 0,9992 km2
comparing the percentage of cell occupied by SMU
in Lambert and Gauss-Boaga West coordinate system:
• difference between the two cases fits a Gaussian distribution:
mean value 0,08 km2 and standard deviation 6,4 km2;
• no perfect equivalence: error is often relevant (up to 16 %)
Exchange format ver. 6.2
comments and remarks
AGRI-USE
Which uses are considered agricultural uses?
AGLM1.AGLM2
Other limitations, often more relevant for
agriculture, can occur, such as slope gradient,
slope shape, climate, …
AGLM could be identify as “pedological limitation to
agricultural use”.
TEXT-TOP-SEC
In the Lombardy soil database:
• only modal attributes of STU are usually formalised:
secondary information is not available.
• texture classes proposed are rather wide:
soils having so different textures belong to
different STU.
Exchange format ver. 6.2
WM1, WM2
Information not available because it is not an attribute of
STU (information more related to “land” than to “soil”)
PX-OBS
PX-NPROF
profiles
other field observations
Information accuracy in the pixel depends on the
scale of the soil survey carried out in the area and
not on the number of soil observations.
First results
Source of data:
land use map (DUSAF) SUR-BARE, SUR-URB, W-Body, STU-TOT
soil map (scale 1:250.000) other parameters
Swiss-Italian Pilot area
Soil Regions
Switzerland (total/dominant)
Prealps
Lombardy (total/dominant)
(Po Plain and) Morainic hills
Lakes
First results
Land Use
WRB Soil Reference Groups
lakes
CM - Cambisols
seeding
LP - Leptosols
pasture-land
LU - Luvisols
forest (conifers, broadleaf)
PH - Phaeozems
urban
UM – Umbrisols
Lakes
Support tools
•
provided:
method to identify the dominant STU occurring in the
pixels by means of Microsoft Access database query
•
under construction:
web utility to get the possibility to see “grid maps” and
data stored in the pixel
method to identify the dominant STU
pixel ID
SMU ID
area
SMU ID
STU ID
STU/SMU
4236_2522
113
0,766
113
33
89 %
4236_2522
91
0,118
113
34
11 %
4236_2522
121
0,116
91
189
48 %
91
130
29 %
91
13
23 %
121
36
100 %
pixel ID
SMU ID
SMU area
STU ID
% STU/SMU
STU area
4236_2522
113
0.766
33
89 %
0.682
4236_2522
113
0.766
34
11 %
0.084
4236_2522
91
0.118
189
48 %
0.057
4236_2522
91
0,118
130
29 %
0.034
4236_2522
91
0,118
13
23 %
0.027
4236_2522
121
0,116
36
100 %
0.116
dominant STU
Work plan
Next steps – ECALP Pilot Area
•
Integrating Swiss experience and contribution
•
Assessing geometric incongruity at the border
•
Identifying rules for shared pixels
•
Filling the database
•
Field excursion: 17-18th of February (to be confirmed)
For the future:
•
INTERREG project (?)
Thanks for your attention!