Project Summary: Soils Ontario

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources, are compiling a high quality, detailed, geo-spatial soils database for Southern Ontario (Figure 1). This new database consolidates the existing digital soil data mapped on a county basis onto a seamless and standardized product.

The current digital soils data was automated from soil survey reports and maps that were produced over a period of decades. The Soils Ontario project has brought these county surveys together in a seamless database which reveals inconsistencies in soil data across county boundaries (Figure 2). These inconsistencies are a result of variations in scale and vintage of the original soil surveys. Using GIS and NRVIS (Natural Resource Values Information System) staff are updating soil information and correlating soil polygons that cross boundaries. Scientists from OMAF and AAFC are working towards automated tools for solving these correlation issues and updating soil information.

Figure 2

The soils data will evolve to a digital database that is spatially accurate, seamless throughout Southern Ontario, current and easily accessible in digital and paper format (Figure 3). The database will contain other descriptive information including slope classes, Canada Land Inventory (CLI) rankings, stoniness, drainage class, texture etc. This, and other information as part of the Soils Ontario project can be applied to:

• Groundwater Protection
• Land use Planning
• Nutrient Management
• Soil Erosion Planning

Figure 3

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