Soil map units near Petauke Eastern Province, Zambia

Description

As part of a study submitted for publication in the journal Catena, we examined the values of soil properties recorded from a two-stage survey of farmland in Zambia (Central Statistical Office, 2015). We focused on 64 locations in the vicinity of Petauke, Eastern Province in Zambia. Our objective was to evaluate two different soil maps in this region, the Soil and Vegetation Map of Northern Rhodesia (Trapnell et al, 1947) and the Exploratory Soil Map of Zambia (GRZ, 1991) by examining the variance components for soil cation exchange capacity at within- and between-map unit levels. We do not own the data, which we were authorised to use but not to share. We do, however, share the soil map unit delineations identified at each sample point according to the two surveys, which we undertook ourselves. The data file comprises observations at 64 locations which had been selected by simple random sampling from among the census enumeration units Central Statistical Office (2015). The coordinates are WGS84 Latitude and Longitude. Physiographic units according to the map of Trapnell et al. (1947) is called "Trapnell" in the file header and takes values U (Upper Valley) or P (Plateau). The corresponding map units from the Exploratory Soil Map of Zambia (GRZ, 1991) are also presented (ESMZ). These are as follows: Pu Undulating plateau units Pu7 Acrisols.6 Well-drained deep to very deep fine loam to clay Pu15 Alisols. Well-drained moderately deep to deep friable, gravelly, fine loam to clay Pu19 Lixisols. Well-drained, very deep fine loam to clay Pu22 Luvisols. Well-drained, very deep, clay with humic topsoil Pu24 Phaeozems. Well-drained, very deep, friable clay to fine clay with humic topsoil Vt5 Rift Valley unit. Association of Vertisols and Phaeozems. H2 Hills and minor scarp unit. Leptosols. Well-drained, shallow, fine loam in places gravelly He7 Hills & faulted scarps of Rift Valley. Leptosols. Excessively – well drained, gravelly, coarse to fine loam The analysis of CEC data is reported in the paper. The data provided can be interpreted by cross-tabulation to show how the delineated units for one map are associated with the other. References Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (CSO/MAL/IAPRI). 2015. Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey. Lusaka, Zambia: CSO/MAL/IAPRI. GRZ (Government of the Republic of Zambia). 1991. Exploratory Soil Map of Zambia; 1:1,000,000; Ministry of Agriculture, Soil Survey Section Research Branch Mapsheets available from ISRIC at https://edepot.wur.nl/486756 and https://edepot.wur.nl/486757. Trapnell, C.G., Martin, J., Allen, W. 1947. Vegetation–Soil Map of Northern Rhodesia. Government Printer, Lusaka.

Steps to reproduce

Survey locations (included in the file) were used to project the locations of observations onto digitized versions of each map in turn. The map unit to which each point corresponded was determined visually and then recorded manually in a file. The two sets of records were then joined using an index value for each point.

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