Jun 17 2012
Scientists have produced a new free map app of the soils of Great Britain. The app, mySoil, also enables the general public to upload information about the soil where they live, helping to improve our knowledge about the properties of soils and the vegetation habitats that they provide.
Using mySoil you can view a map of soil parent material — the underlying geological material — click on an area to get information about soil depth, texture, pH and organic matter content, and explore vegetation habitat data across the UK. mySoil, produced by the NERC British Geological Survey (BGS) and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), was launched at the Times Cheltenham Science Festival on 14 June 2012. mySoil, for iPhones and iPads, is for anyone with an interest in the soil of Great Britain, including allotment owners, farmers and agricultural specialists, gardeners, schools and college students,
environmentalists and land use planners.
We encourage land users, especially in cities, to send us descriptions and pictures of their soil. The public can play a big role in contributing to soil science data, for urban areas in particular, where the data is limited. John Ludden, Executive Director of the BGS says; ‘Mobile technologies are opening up exciting new ways to share environmental information. We hope this will begin a new form of dialogue with the public and other users, where we can together improve our environmental information and knowledge.’
Gwyn Rees, Director of the Environmental Information Data Centre at the CEH says; ‘This new app is part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) ongoing efforts to make our environmental datasets easier to use. By sharing data and technical knowledge between CEH and BGS we’ve created an invaluable resource for the general public.’ The mySoil app combines soil information from the BGS Parent Material Map and the Countryside Survey carried out by the CEH.
Discover more about our soil research via the NERC Soil Portal – http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nercsoilportal. The mySoil app can be downloaded for free from the BGS website: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mysoil/ Its sister app, iGeology, can also be downloaded for free from the BGS website: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/igeology/