For the legend-building of the soil regions map (EUSR5000), areas with similar climate (EUCA15000) are further subdivided into areas with similar parent material, thus with a similar geologic paleogeographic development. Because the geological conditions (nature of parent material) are key factors for soil formation, it must be characterized at the level of the soil regions as well. In order to represent parent material at the Europe-wide continental level, data from small-scale geological maps were re-interpreted and aggregated to parent material associations 1:15 Mio. The different rocks are summarized by geological formation, at the same time following the main class- or group-level from the List of Parent Material according to Finke et al.(2001). As a result, 18 rock complexes were received and evaluated in respect of their effect on soil formation. Here it must be pointed out that soils are not formed on the rock itself but on weathering products mostly consisting of several layers and with numerous external components incorporated by redeposition.
The map ”Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany 1:1,000,000 (INSPIRE)” highlights the results of a Germany-wide compilation of typical soil organic matter contents in top-soils differentiated according to groups of soil parent material, four climatic areas and the main land use. The evaluation is based on more than 9000 soil data profiles with information about Soil Organic Matter (SOM) from a period of about 20 years. The report 'The Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany', BGR Archive, No. 0127036 (in German) documents the methodology. To transform the organic matter content (of the original dataset HUMUS1000OB) into INSPIRE-relevant organic carbon content (CORG1000OB), we applied the van Bemmelen factor (1.724). According to the “Data Specification on Soil“ (D2.8.III.3_v3.0) and the “Guidelines for the use of Observations & Measurements and Sensor Web Enablement-related standards in INSPIRE“ (D2.9_v3.0) the content of the map “Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany 1:1,000,000“ is stored in a single INSPIRE-compliant GML file: buek1000-humus-ob_SoilDerivedObject.gml. The data has been transformed into the following INSPIRE-Feature Types (Spatial Object Types): “SoilDerivedObject“, “OM_Observation“ and “OM_Process“. The GML file together with a Readme.txt file is provided in ZIP format (BUEK1000-HUMUS-OB-INSPIRE.zip). The Readme.text file (German/English) contains detailed information on the GML file content. Data transformation was proceeded by using the INSPIRE Solution Pack for FME according to the INSPIRE requirements.
The WMS of the map „Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany 1:1,000,000 (INSPIRE)“ highlights the results of a Germany-wide compilation of typical soil organic matter contents in top-soils differentiated according to groups of soil parent material, four climatic areas and the main land use. The evaluation is based on more than 9000 soil data profiles with information about Soil Organic Matter (SOM) from a period of about 20 years. The report 'The Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany', BGR Archive, No. 0127036 (in German) documents the methodology. To transform the organic matter content (of the original dataset HUMUS1000OB) into INSPIRE-relevant organic carbon content (CORG), we applied the van Bemmelen factor (1.724). According to the “Data Specification on Soil“ (D2.8.III.3_v3.0) and the “Guidelines for the use of Observations & Measurements and Sensor Web Enablement-related standards in INSPIRE“ (D2.9_v3.0) the map “Organic Matter Content of Top-Soils in Germany 1:1,000,000“ provides INSPIRE-compliant data. The data has been transformed into the following INSPIRE-Feature Types (Spatial Object Types): “SoilDerivedObject“, “OM_Observation“ and “OM_Process“.