LandIS Digital Soil Datasets

LandIS Datasets

Digital soils information

Cranfield University maintains all the published and unpublished paper soil reports and maps for England and Wales, and market and lease a wide body of digital soil information, comprising the following principal data sets:

• Vector and gridded vector versions of the 1:250,000 scale National Soil Map (NATMAP) including the simplified Soilscapes version;
• The National Soil Inventory of data on soils and topsoil chemistry;
• Representative values or a range of properties and derived functional values for soil series;
• Soil profile descriptions, a proportion of which have accompanying analytical data.

All these data sets are held in the LandIS relational 'land information system' is maintained by Cranfield. More details of each are given here - select from the menus in the left panel.

Obtaining digital soils data

Access arrangements

Arrangements for access to soil data are governed by an agreement between Cranfield University and Defra acting on behalf of the Crown. Under the LandIS Agreement:

• Data are only ever licensed (i.e. not sold) for use over a specified period;
• Departments of the Crown and their contractors are entitled to royalty-free data for specified applications, and therefore only pay an administrative fee to cover the cost of extraction and administration;
• Bona fide researchers are entitled to data on a similar basis;
• Cranfield is entitled to charge all other individuals and groups, including the Executive Agencies, an additional royalty fee to reflect the value of the information. Royalty fees are calculated using a set of standardised charging formulae that apply progressive discounts on base rates for larger volumes of data.

Our standard End User Licence Agreement are available for inspection.