FAO SOILS PORTAL
HWSD 2.0 Available

Harmonized World Soil Database v 1.2

This is the result of a collaboration between the FAO with IIASA, ISRIC-World Soil Information, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS), and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC)

The Harmonized World Soil Database is a 30 arc-second raster database with over 15 000 different soil mapping units that combines existing regional and national updates of soil information worldwide (SOTER, ESD, Soil Map of China, WISE) with the information contained within the 1:5 000 000 scale FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World (FAO, 1971-1981).

The resulting raster database consists of 21600 rows and 43200 columns, which are linked to harmonized soil property data. The use of a standardized structure allows for the linkage of the attribute data with the raster map to display or query the composition in terms of soil units and the characterization of selected soil parameters (organic Carbon, pH, water storage capacity, soil depth, cation exchange capacity of the soil and the clay fraction, total exchangeable nutrients, lime and gypsum contents, sodium exchange percentage, salinity, textural class and granulometry).

Download : Download viewer & data (only soil types)   |    Download database (.mdb)  | HWSD Raster | Technical Report and Instructions

A selection of the data is downloadable and available here :

Global Terrain Slope and Aspect Data

The data include an elevation map describing median elevation in each grid cell, eight slope maps, and five aspect maps describing distributions (i.e. pixel counts) of the respective slope or aspect classes calculated for 3 arc-sec data and accumulated to 30 arc-sec and 5 min latitude/longitude grid cells respectively. A detailed description including technical details is provided in the documentation file.

The data is saved in RAR archives. More information about the RAR archive format, may be found elsewhere on the net.

Grid cell size: 5 minutes:

LAND MASK

GloLand_5min.rar

Number of 3 arc second grid cells that belong to the land mask and fall into 5 minutes grid cells

ELEVATION

 

GloElev_5min.rar

Median elevation (meters)

SLOPES (view median slope)

Slope class

GloSlopesCl1_5min.rar

0 % ≤ slope ≤ 0.5 %

GloSlopesCl2_5min.rar

0.5 % ≤ slope ≤ 2 %

GloSlopesCl3_5min.rar

2 % ≤ slope ≤ 5 %

GloSlopesCl4_5min.rar

5 % ≤ slope ≤ 10 %

GloSlopesCl5_5min.rar

10 % ≤ slope ≤ 15 %

GloSlopesCl6_5min.rar

15 % ≤ slope ≤ 30 %

GloSlopesCl7_5min.rar

30 % ≤ slope ≤ 45 %

GloSlopesCl8_5min.rar

Slope > 45 %

ASPECT (view dominant aspect)

Aspect class

GloAspectClN_5min.rar

North: 0˚< aspect ≤45˚ or
315˚< aspect ≤360˚

GloAspectClE_5min.rar

East: 45˚ < aspect ≤ 135˚

GloAspectClS_5min.rar

South: 135˚ < aspect ≤ 225˚

GloAspectClW_5min.rar

West: 225˚ < aspect ≤ 315˚

GloAspectClU_5min.rar

Undefined: Slope aspect undefined; this value is used for grids where slope gradient is undefined or slope gradient is less than 2%.

Grid cell size: 30 arc-seconds:

LAND MASK

GloLand_30as.rar

Number of 3 arc second grid cells that belong to the land mask and fall into 30 arcsecond grid cells

ELEVATION

 

GloElev_30as.rar

Median elevation (meters)

SLOPES

Slope class

GloSlopesCl1_30as.rar

0 % ≤ slope ≤ 0.5 %

GloSlopesCl2_30as.rar

0.5 % ≤ slope ≤ 2 %

GloSlopesCl3_30as.rar

2 % ≤ slope ≤ 5 %

GloSlopesCl4_30as.rar

% ≤ slope ≤ 10 %

GloSlopesCl5_30as.rar

10 % ≤ slope ≤ 15 %

GloSlopesCl6_30as.rar

15 % ≤ slope ≤ 30 %

GloSlopesCl7_30as.rar

30 % ≤ slope ≤ 45 %

GloSlopesCl8_30as.rar

Slope > 45 %

ASPECT

Aspect class

GloAspectClN_30as.rar

North: 0˚< aspect ≤45˚ or 315˚< aspect ≤360˚

GloAspectClE_30as.rar

East: 45˚ < aspect ≤ 135˚

GloAspectClS_30as.rar

South: 135˚ < aspect ≤ 225˚

GloAspectClW_30as.rar

West: 225˚ < aspect ≤ 315˚

GloAspectClU_30as.rar

Undefined: Slope aspect undefined; this value is used for grids where slope gradient is undefined or slope gradient is less than 2%.

Data Citation:
Fischer, G., F. Nachtergaele, S. Prieler, H.T. van Velthuizen, L. Verelst, D. Wiberg, 2008. Global Agro-ecological Zones Assessment for Agriculture (GAEZ 2008). IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria and FAO, Rome, Italy.

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