Development of a high spatial resolution legacy soil profile database for the Southern Great Hungarian Plain

A high spatial resolution soil database is under development in Hungary consisting of legacy soil observation data originating from different soil surveys. The soil data collected for the presented  pilot area situated in the Southern Great Hungarian Plain will be the part of the Profile-level Database of Hungarian Large-Scale Soil Mapping (Hungarian acronym: NATASA). Presently, the NATASA soil database contains data from about 15,000 soil profiles in the sample area. The data from the soil profile records consist of two major parts: field descriptions and results of laboratory investigations. Soil profile locations are being processed using specifically elaborated GIS tools. Digitized profile records are being revised according to the national soil system and expert-based criteria, and the content of the database is being developed according to a uniform nomenclature. Essentially, the NATASA database will form the basis for the production of target soil hydrophysical property maps using environmental auxiliary variables and proper inference methods in standardized DSM approaches providing predictions for specific soil depths.

The results obtained will not only become tangible in the form of different target maps, but will also provide very valuable information on the extent of the vulnerability of the Hungarian Southern Great Plain production areas to inland water and drought caused by weather extremes under the influence of climate change. This could help in the development of a regional drought and water deficit management system, in the establishment of a basis for irrigation investments or in the further development of the methodology of the current inland water vulnerability map. A more detailed knowledge of the hydrophysical properties of soils with spatial data could help to develop natural water retention measures.

Acknowledgement: The work was carried out within the framework of the Széchenyi Plan Plus program with the support of the RRF 2.3.1 21 2022 00008 project and the Sustainable Development and Technologies National Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (FFT NP FTA).