Soil Parent Material Model
| Scale | 1:50 000 |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Great Britain |
| Format | GIS polygon data. (ESRI, MapInfo, others available by request) |
| Price | 30p per km2. Subject to Data Preparation Fee. More information about licensing data. |
| Downloads |
A parent material is a soil-science name for a weathered rock or deposit from, and within which a soil has formed.
In the UK, parent materials provide the basic foundations and building blocks of the soil, influencing their texture, structure, drainage and chemistry.
Soils are the result of weathering processes that occur on the Earth’s surface where the atmosphere meets the geosphere and hydrosphere. We live in this ‘critical zone’ relying on our soils to grow our food and sustain the biodiversity and health of our environment.
The Parent Material Model details the distribution of physiochemical properties of the weathered and unweathered parent materials of the UK to:
- facilitate spatial mapping of UK soil properties
- identify soils and landscapes sensitive to erosion
- provide a national overview of our soil resource
- develop a better understanding of weathering properties and processes
The Parent Material Model details over 30 rock and sediment characteristics; it builds upon the standard DiGMapGB-50 geological dataset, adding simplified classifications of lithological properties.
The attribute content includes a range of texture information, colour, structure, mineralogy, lithology, carbonate content and genetic origin. Users can pick any or all of these parameters in bundles of data specific to their needs.
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Contact Digital Data for more information.
