Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life

Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life is the motto of the UN International Year of Soils which aims to “increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions.” As explained on the campaign’s website, “soil is the thin layer of material on the Earth’s surface. It is a natural resource consisting of weathered and organic materials, air and water. As it is the medium in which plants establish themselves and grow, the most widely recognized function of soil is its support for food production. Soil provides nutrients and water that are absorbed through plant roots and contribute to the regulation of water and atmospheric gases and therefore play an important role in climate regulation.”

Soil therefore matters most where is is near human population, which at the same time puts soils under extreme pressure in these areas. Soil types not least determine where humans used to settle when they gave up their nomadic lifestyles and started becoming more stationary as farmers. Nowadays, some of the most fertile soils are found in the most densely populated spaces on the planet, which is shown in the following map. The map shows the major soil types classified in the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World reprojected on a gridded population cartogram where a grid is resized to give every person living within a grid cell an equal amount of space (reducing the map in those spaces most where there are fewest people):

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The colours used in this map differ from the original FAO map and this may not make it the aesthetically most beautiful map. However, this cartogram aims to highlight the most common soil types in those spaces where human settle, while it omits those spaces that are normally given most prominence in a conventional map. The soil types shown in the map “are classified on the basis of a combination of soil properties that are considered indicative of the way they have been formed. The quantity and the depth at which soil characteristics such as organic matter, clay, iron and soluble salt content occur are some of the factors that are used to define the major soil classes” (quoted from the IYS website).
The major soil groups can be described as follows (quoted from the 2008 FAO report: Harmonized world soil database manual):

ACRISOLS (AC): Soils with subsurface accumulation of low activity clays and low base saturationALISOLS (AL): Soils with sub-surface accumulation of high activity clays, rich in exchangeable aluminumANDOSOLS (AN): Young soils formed from volcanic depositsANTHROSOLS (AT): Soils in which human activities have resulted in profound modification of their propertiesARENOSOLS (AR): Sandy soils featuring very weak or no soil developmentCALCISOLS (CL): Soils with accumulation of secondary calcium carbonatesCAMBISOLS (CM): Weakly to moderately developed soilsCHERNOZEMS (CH): Soils with a thick, dark topsoil, rich in organic matter with a calcareous subsoilFERRALSOLS (FR): Deep, strongly weathered soils with a chemically poor, but physically stable subsoilFLUVISOLS (FL): Young soils in alluvial depositsGLEYSOLS (GL): Soils with permanent or temporary wetness near the surfaceGREYZEMS (GR): Acid soils with a thick, dark topsoil rich in organic matterGYPSISOLS (GY): Soils with accumulation of secondary gypsumHISTOSOLS (HS): Soils which are composed of organic materialsKASTANOZEMS (KS): Soils with a thick, dark brown topsoil, rich in organic matter and a calcareous or gypsum-rich subsoilLEPTOSOLS (LP): Very shallow soils over hard rock or in unconsolidated very gravelly materialLIXISOLS (LX): Soils with subsurface accumulation of low activity clays and high base saturationLUVISOLS (LV): Soils with subsurface accumulation of high activity clays and high base saturationNITISOLS (NT): Deep, dark red, brown or yellow clayey soils having a pronounced shiny, nut-shaped structurePHAEOZEMS (PH): Soils with a thick, dark topsoil rich in organic matter and evidence of removal of carbonatesPLANOSOLS (PL): Soils with a bleached, temporarily water-saturated topsoil on a slowly permeable subsoilPLINTHOSOLS (PT): Wet soils with an irreversibly hardening mixture of iron, clay and quartz in the subsoilPODZOLS (PZ): Acid soils with a subsurface accumulation of iron-aluminum-organic compoundsPODZOLUVISOLS (PD): Acid soils with a bleached horizon penetrating into a clay-rich subsurface horizonREGOSOLS (RG): Soils with very limited soil developmentSOLONCHAKS (SC): Strongly saline soilsSOLONETZ (SN): Soils with subsurface clay accumulation, rich in sodiumVERTISOLS (VR): Dark-coloured cracking and swelling clays

Soils in the most densely populated spaces on the planet are perhaps those most under threat – if they are not degraded already. As stated on the campaign’s website, “studies report that approximately 33% of our soils are facing moderate to severe degradation. The current rate of soil degradation threatens the capacity to meet the needs of future generations, unless we reverse this trend through a concerted effort towards the sustainable management of soils.” A lot more awareness will need to be raised amongst all stakeholders to stop this trend.

Amongst the efforts to tacke these issues is the Global Soil Week which is just under way this week. The motto Soil: The Substance of Transformationhighlights the importance of land and soil to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as the successors of the Millennium Development Goals. Understanding the importance of soils is a first step in preserving them – and create healthy soils for a healthier and more sustainable life of humanity.

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig using data published byFAO. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

Source: Views of the World

Forests on diet – the map of global forest extension

By Stefan Mühlbauer



A new high resolution map of global forest extension covering the time span 2000 – 2012 was recently presented by Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, US. The time series is based on 654.178 LANDSAT images resulting in a global wide map displaying forest change at a never seen spatial detail of down to 30m. Thus, the map entails globally ‘consistent but locally relevant information’, according to a geographer of University of Maryland. Indeed, the map is useful for extracting information on local forest change, while potentially every corner of the globe may be entered. The huge amount of data processing was possible only through cloud computing.

Methodologically, forests were considered as all vegetation taller than 5m and are expressed as a percentage per output grid cell as ‘2000 Percent Tree Cover’. ‘Forest Loss’ is defined as a stand-replacement disturbance, or a change from a forest to non-forest state. ‘Forest Gain’ is defined as the inverse of loss, or a non-forest to forest change entirely within the study period.

The new forest map reveals that between 2000 and 2012 2.3 millions km² of forest havevanished. To present the gain and loss more clearly I am going to state the raw numbers:

2000 – 2012 global forest dynamics

• Gains: 800.000 km²
• Losses: 2.300.000 km²
• Loss and Re-gain: 200.000km²

The greatest amount of loss still occurred in the tropics that count for 32% of all losses. While in Brazil due to political efforts the rate of loss reduced slightely (though after 2012 the restrictions for deforestation were loosened up again), the deforestation rate in Indonesia doubled after 2003 from 10.000 km² to more than 20.000 km² forest cut per year. Considerable are also the losses in the Canadian and Russian boreal forests.

Forest monitoring belongs to one of the highly significant topics of today. Initiatives such as UN’s REDD+ highlight the need for information upon forest change and biomass. Forests impact the climate (CO2 household), biodiversity of plants and animals, but also the humans in a positive manner. A researcher of the mapping team found out that tree cover correlates with human health as people living close to forests eat a healthier diet than people in other environments do (FAO article1, FAO article2).

In an increased situation of urbanisation, loss of biodiversity and enhanced consumption of resources the protection of forests as ecological regulators is of great importance. As political desicions for stopping deforestations unfortuantely need hard facts those forest and biomass monitoring programs in my opinion are strongly necessary in order not to experience forests being on diet themselves!

The new global map of deforestation reveals 2.3 million square kilometers lost between 2000 and 2012. Red shows losses, blue gains, purple loss and gain.

Indonesia lost forests the fastest of any nation between 2000 and 2012. Red shows losses, blue gains, purple gain and losses.Credit: Image courtesy Matt Hansen, University of Maryland

Forest losses in tropical South America between 2000 and 2012. Particularly at the southern edge of the Amazonian Basin, in Bolivia, Paraguay the loss of forest are considerable. Red shows losses, blue gains, purple losses and gains.

A map of change in North American forests between 2000 and 2012. Red is loss and pink represents areas of loss and gain.

Credit: Image courtesy Matt Hansen, University of Maryland

Losses in the Canadian boreal forests in a more detailed view. Red shows losses, bllue gains, purple losses and gains

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Forest change in Europe: A wind storm in 2009 leveled a forested area in the south-west of France. Portugal exhibits a strong dynamic of forest loss and gain. Red shows losses, blue gains, purple losses and gains.

Source: Geoawesomeness

Global Spaces of Food Production

In the year 2000 there were approximately 15 million square km of cropland and 28 million square km of pasture which are represented in the two main maps. These are equal to 12% respectively 22% of the ice-free land surface. This is according to estimates of a study on the geographic distribution of global agricultural lands by Ramankutty et al (published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2008) who used a methodology of combining agricultural inventory data and satellite-derived land cover data to come to these figures (data can be accessed via Columbia University’s SEDAC).
Agricultural activities have dramatically altered our planet’s land surface, as the authors state in the introduction to their study, but agricultural areas have spaces of central importance to humanity. They provide the foundations not only of the livelihood of the majority of people, but also for feeding the still growing world’s population. Where these spaces are at risk, potential conflicts arise. “We know clearly that inequalities around food, water and energy wealth do create wars,” says David Nabarro, UN special representative on food security and nutrition in a BBC report. When unusual weather events threaten agricultural landscapes, the result are rising food prices of which the poorest are most affected from.
Climate change and food security are therefore key issues in finding strategies for a sustainable future of the global population. A framework document by the FAO points out, that although the wealthier nations may be losing out less, the vulnerability of populations from food insecurity is a global problem: “As an indirect effect, low-income people everywhere, but particularly in urban areas, will be at risk of food insecurity owing to loss of assets and lack of adequate insurance coverage. This may also lead to shifting vulnerabilities in both developing and developed countries.”
Geography can make an important contribution by analysing the geospatial effects of global warming and climate change on food systems. In the delegate’s session at this year’s 48th annual meeting of the British Society of Cartographers in London I presented the basic concept for mapping out agricultural spaces using the gridded cartogram method developed in my PhD research. The first two maps provide a new insight into the distribution of these global food spaces for which I worked with the data from the above mentioned study. By calculating the total areas of croplands and pastures I was able to apply a gridded cartogram transformation at a spatial resolution of 5 arc minutes (ca. 10 km) in longitude by longitude. The following two maps show the basic result of that transformation, so that in the two maps the size of an individual grid cell reflects the total area of each respective agricultural land. A grid cell twice as large as another has twice as much agricultural land in its space, so that these maps show an equal agricultural area projection of the land surface.
These are the croplands, which represent a total area of 15 million square km:

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And here are the pastures, which represent an area of 28 million square km:

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Both maps are only a fraction of the worlds total land area of about 149 million square km, but these are the most important areas to look at when it comes to understanding food security. The maps above are only the start for using a different cartographic approach in understanding the interrelations between environmental threats and food security. The maps – here shown with a topographic layer – have further analytical capabilities and allow to show any other geospatial information in that relation (and thus the relations between these agricultural spaces and other issues). The topography demonstrates a (known) relation between altitude and the distribution of agricultural areas. But one can go much further into other issues, such as the intensively discussed issue of water scarcity and food production. A study published in 2010 pointed out the threat level of freshwater resources (which I looked at in relation to population before). Such data is centrally important not only because of the population’s need for access to freshwater, but even more so for a sustainable provision of freshwater for framing and food production. Therefore, looking at the relation between agricultural lands and issues of water security can help to identify regions at risk and provide the basis for finding solutions to these specific risks. The following map series shows the different components of the water security study in relation to agricultural areas – it focuses on the global threats to security of flowing freshwater resources and river biodiversity, and therefore has to be seen as only one of many aspects of water-related issues arising in agricultural lands:

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Humanity may not be forced into vegetarianism, as catchy headlines warned recently, but we have to learn to better understand where our spaces of food production are most at risk and how we can better protect them. This is one little part on the way for a sustainable future of humanity, although equally important we have to look at our lifestyles – at our consumption and waste that we produce – and at the (un)equal distribution of food of which there is much more around than we sometimes think there is. Global food security under climate change is a challenge, but it won’t be solved by closing our eyes to it.

With the SoC conference’s focus on geovisualisation and cartography, these maps can only provide a small topical insight to the issues raised here. Not least are these maps global perspectives, and solutions have to be found by identifying relations at all geographical scales. However, they demonstrate the capabilities of such alternative mapping approaches which in general are seamlessly scalable and therefore adaptable to looking at these issues at varying scales. In addition, the concept demonstrates a general way of using GIS and visualisation techniques for enhancing the understanding of complex data. One central part of our understanding comes from our visual capabilities which we do not always fully embrace when using conventional mapping approaches.

The entry image was made using an extract of the cover image of Mission:Explore Food by the Geography Collective. The other content on this page has been created by Benjamin D. Hennig. You are free use the material under Creative Commons conditions (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0); please contact me for further details. I also appreciate a message if you used my maps somewhere else. High resolution and customized maps are available on request.

Source: Views of the World

Wood-works: Mapping the world’s commercial forestry

While ‘sustainability’ is in everyone’s mouth – from academia to politics – few are aware that the term was originally shaped in relation to the early days of modern forestry: In the early 18th century, Hans Carl von Carlowitz coined the German word ‘Nachhaltigkeit’ which in a simplified way meant to ensure that enough trees were replanted to ensure the long-term existence of wood supplies (from where the term found its way into its broader meaning that we use it for today). While wood has for a long time been an important resource, it todays is also an important global trade product. In 2007 the FAO stated that “over the last 20 years international trade of forest products […] increased from US$60 billion to US$257 billion, an average annual growth of 6.6%.”

The following cartograms show different aspects related to forestry, including the production of wood for economic activity, the consumption of wood and wood-related products (such as paper), as well as global exports and imports of this (using data for 2011 by FAOstat):

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These maps of course do not represent the global distribution of forests, but only the global picture of commercial activity related to forestry. Back in 2011 I mapped the global distribution of forests in each country in 2005 in collaboration with the the Forest Service of the USDA which is shown in the following map (the full map series including maps of change and more details about these maps can be found on this page):

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In 2005, the total amount of forests worldwide was just under 4 billion hectares. This is equal to about 30 percent of the land area on Earth. If every person on Earth were given an equal piece of forest, each person would have 0.62 of a hectare, which is about the size of a football field

A more detailed picture of the global forest distribution can also be found in the January edition of Geographical Magazine published by the RGS to which I contributed a gridded cartogram of the global forest distribution from my PhD research.

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig using data by FAOstat. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

Source: Views of the World

6 Amazing Global Agriculture Maps – Farming Visualized

Agriculture Maps

Visualizing Farming with Agriculture Maps
Ever wonder where your food comes from? We have 6 agriculture maps to show you the answer.

Almost every bit of the food we eat is grown and gathered on farms. Humans have learned how to change the environment to most-effectively grow crops. We’ve also learned to produce more crops with less land. But a number of issues threatens agriculture sustainability – population increase, climate change and water stress.

Feast your eyes on these agriculture maps and learn what the future of farming holds.

1. Agricultural Exposure to Water Stress Map
Agriculture takes advantage of the nutrients in the soil and the amount of water that is available. Water is the key. When crops aren’t getting enough water, farmers have to find ways to bring water to the crops. This is called irrigation. Irrigation can change dry land into fertile farmland. To get water needed for crops, we build reservoirs and drill deep wells. Irrigation is a big part of farming.

The World Resources Institute has mapped out where these water stresses exist in the world. The Agriculture Exposure to Water Stress Map measures the ratio of local withdrawal (demand) over the available water (supply). Countries like India, Morocco, Spain and the Philippines face high cropland water stress.. Other major commodity crops are visualized like coffee, rice and cereals.

2. Feeding the World Map

Crop production will have to double by 2050 to fulfill the needs of a growing and increasingly affluent population. Meeting this challenge will be difficult but not impossible, according to the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment

Can Global Crop Production Meet Future Demands? The University of Minnesota is exploring current crop yields and solutions to the biggest problems in agriculture. This is the purpose of the Feeding the World Story Map. In order to tackle this growing problem, we will have to:

• Make croplands more productive
• Increase water use efficiency
• Change crop use & diet

3. World Bank Agricultural Land (% of land area)

World Bank has a unique set of Agriculture Maps showing historical and future farming trends. Agriculture maps include:

• Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)
• Agricultural land (% of land area)
• Agricultural machinery (tractors per 100 sq km of arable land)
• Agriculture, value added (% of GDP)
• Agriculture, value added per worker (constant 2005 US$)

4. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Hunger Map

One in seven people on Earth live on less than one dollar each day
Hunger means going without an adequate meal for days. It prevents adults from working and stunts the growth of babies. It affects one out of nine people every day. The majority of hunger issues are in developing countries.

The United Nations is combating hunger with its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) program. The UN has set a target to halve in the developing world. The interactive UN Hunger Map raises awareness about global hunger.

5. ISRIC Soil Grids 1KM
Plants live in dirt. Rich topsoil is filled of living things like bugs, worms, roots and dead leaves. In the soil business, this is called organic material. Let’s say topsoil comprised of 10% organic material and the rest sand and rocks. The nutrients that plants take up in their roots comes from that 10% organic material. Without organic material, hardly any plants could grow. And it takes centuries for topsoil to grow.

But other factors come into play for crop production. Soil texture (sand %, silt % and clay %) is important because it influences nutrient retention. Cation exchange capacity indicates how the soil can supply nutrients like calcium, magnesium and potassium.

ISRIC’s 1km Global Soil Map helps with agriculture decision-making. Some of the greatest soil maps can be found with properties like taxonomy, organic carbon, pH in H2O, sand %, silt %, clay %, cation exchange capacity, bulk density and coarse fragments

6. FAO Global Spatial Database of Agricultural Land-use Statistics
Agro-maps breaks down primary food crops by sub-national administrative districts. The information is aggregated by crop production, area harvested and crop yields.

About 40% of the global workforce is in agriculture. That’s 1.3 billion people. This means that agriculture is the world’s largest provider of jobs. In the FAO Global Spatial Database and Agricultural Land-use Interactive Map, you get a limited yet very important component of land use.

Agriculture Maps for Decision Making
Agriculture feeds the globe. We can see which crop types are suited for different environments in this list of agriculture maps.

Farming also faces a number of problems – population increase, climate change, hunger and water stress. Agriculture maps can convey this information to make knowledgeable decisions.

Instantly, you have become more knowledgeable about agricultural issues with these 6 agriculture maps.

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