Soil Surveys in Brazil and Perspectives in Soil Digital Mapping

Abstract

In analyzing the evolution of pedologic mapping perspectives in Brazil, it is noteworthy that they are based firmly on geology and focused on soil aptitude for agricultural use. Mapping detail was improved between the decades of 1950 and 1980. The mapping initially concentrated in the Northeast and Southeast regions, shifting its orientation in recent decades with the opening of the Brazilian agricultural frontiers. Remote sensing, geographical information systems, and informatics allowed increased map detail and promoted technological changes in map production. This revolution provided the development of digital soil mapping (DSM) as a set of methods and techniques to automate the soil surveys in Brazil. Despite the technological advances, only 1% of the Brazilian territory has soil maps on the scale of 1:25,000. In 1990 for economical, technological, and methodological reasons there was a decrease in both surveying and detailing processes. In a response to this reality Brazil has used new software and technologies, as well as the accumulated knowledge, to increase technological development of soil surveys. The integration of existing techniques and data favor the faster construction of more detailed and more interactive soil maps for a larger parcel of the country. This perspective, as the former one, will require some modifications to the soil mapping both in the methodology and also in the approach.