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Appendices. Quality of Soil Information for Scotland
Introduction
Types of Soil information
Soils data can be subdivided into data, information and knowledge. For this project we have divided soil information into:
- Sample data:
- Soil profile descriptions and analytical data from samples
- Sample material
- Spatial and other information derived from the sample data:
- Soil maps at a range of scales
- Archived survey field sheets (not described here)
Digital soils data
Quality Criteria for Soil Data and Information
The available information on Scotland's soil resource is held by several organisations. We have reviewed each set of information and compiled a summary of each data set. The summary uses quality factors based on those published in:
- Principles of Good Metadata Management ( IGGI, 2004)
- Information Quality Guidelines ( NOAA, 2002)
Each data set is described under four main headings:
- Basic description, comprising:
- Title
- Dataset acronym
- Original purpose
- Dataset description
- Data format
- Data Path
- Creator or author
- Author credentials
- Contributor
- Gaps / inconsistencies
- Spatial coverage
- Time frame
- Spatial / temporal accuracy or precision
- Data currency
- Archival material
- Recording methods and standards:
- Peer review
- Standards
- Recording methods
- Recorded attributes list the information content of the data set.
- Quality factors contain the following items:
- Critical success factors i.e. what is critical to the purpose
- Objectivity - random locations etc.
- Usefulness to policy makers
- Integrity - protection from unauthorised access or revision
- Primary data - collected to evaluate the threat
- Secondary data - collected to assess some other threat
- Were data directly collected, produced from a model ( GIS or predictive) or compiled from other sources such as database or literature
References
Black, H.I.J., Garnett, J.S., Ainsworth, G.., Coward, P.A., Creamer, R., Ellwood, S., Horne, J., Hornung, M., Kennedy, V.H., Monson, F., Raine, L., Osborn, D., Parekh, N.R., Parrington, J., Poskitt, J.M., Potter, E., Reeves, N., Rowland, A.P., Self, P., Turner, S., Watkins, J., Woods, C. and Wright, J. (2002) MASQ: Monitoring and Assessing Soil Quality in Great Britain. R&D Technical Report E1-063/TR. Environment Agency
Boorman, D.B., Hollis, J.M. and Lilly, A. (1995) Report No. 126. Hydrology of soil types: a hydrologically-based classification of the soils of the United Kingdom. Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford.
Brown, K.W.M., Gauld, J.H., Smith, B.F.L., Bain, D.C. Burridge, J.C. and Inkson, R.H.E. (1987) Design of a database for Scottish Soils. Journal of Soil Science 38(2), 267-277.
Butler, B.E. (1980) Soil Classification for Soil Survey. Monographs on Soil Survey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hodgson, J.M. (2004) Soil Survey Field Handbook. Describing and Sampling Soil Profiles. Soil Survey Technical Monograph No 5.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA), USA. (2002) Information Quality Guidelines. Available on the NOAA website on 30 June 2006: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/iq.htm
Intra-Departmental Group on Geographic Information ( IGGI), UK. (2004) The Principles of Good Metadata Management. Available as pdf download on 30 June 2006 from http://www.iggi.gov.uk/dataSupport.php
Jenny, H. (1941). Factors of Soil Formation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology. (1978) First Ecological Survey of Great Britain.
Lawley, Fordyce and Merritt, (2006). Briefing document prepared by British Geological Survey for the Scottish Executive at their request in respect of the current state of Scottish soils, May 2006
Pyatt, D.G. (1995) An Ecological Site Classification for Great Britain. Research Information Note 260, Edinburgh: Forestry Commission.
Ray, D. (2001) An Ecological Site Classification for forestry in Great Britain. Bulletin 124. 82 pp. Edinburgh: Forestry Commission.
Robertson, J.S. (1984) A Key to the Common Plant Communities of Scotland. Soil Survey of Scotland Monograph. Aberdeen: The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research.
Soil Survey Staff. (1984) Organisation and Methods of the 1:250 000 Soil Survey of Scotland. Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Aberdeen.
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