Soil & terrain database, land degradation status & soil vulnerability assessment for Central & Eastern Europe (1:2.5 million scale) FAO Land and Water Digital Media Series, Vol. 10

This CD-ROM presents the spatial and attribute databases and the technical reports produced during the execution of the Mapping of Soil and Terrain Vulnerability in Central and Eastern Europe (SOVEUR) project (GCP/RER/107/NET) between February 1997 and April 2000. The project activities were implemented under a contractual service agreement with the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) which included letters of agreement with national institutes in the participating countries. The project was technically backstopped by the Land and Plant Nutrient Management Service (AGLL).The spatial and attribute databases compiled on this CD-ROM contain: (i) a harmonized soil and terrain database for 13 countries in eastern Europe at 1:2.5 million scale, compiled following the SOTER principles, including georeferenced soil profile data, (ii) a database and associated maps on the status of soil degradation in the region including an evaluation of the extent, type, severity, causes and trends, (iii) a database and associated maps on the vulnerability to pollution, in particular by 11 metals: Cd, Mn, Ni, Co, Zn, Cu, Cr, Pb, Hg, Fe and Al. All the coverages are in Geographic Projection (Latitude/Longitude), while the maps given as Images are in Lambert projection (Central Meridian 25 0 0, 1st Standard parallel 60 0 0, 2nd Standard Parallel 40 0 0, units metres). All the coverages presented are either in PC Arc/Info or in Arc/Info Export format with "none" compression. The technical reports included cover the various technical documentation and guidelines prepared for the compilation of the various spatial databases. They also contain proceedings of two workshops held by the SOVEUR project. A "Shareware" directory contains subdirectories with executable files that permit downloading of shareware versions of ACROBAT 4.0 (r) and the ACDSee (r) graphics viewer. These programs are needed to consult the enclosed technical reports (PDF files) and the image (JPG) files that show selected map outputs of the SOVEU R project. Minimum hardware requirements A Pentium PC with Windows 95/98 or NT, at least 32 Mb RAM and a 15" or larger colour monitor. For some maps it would be advisable to have a large screen with a resolution of 1 024 x 768 pixels and a colour palette of 65 536 colours. Required Software All the maps are provided in Arc/Info GIS (Geographic Information System) software in export (*.E00) format. Therefore, Arc/Info or other GIS software that can read either of these formats would be required to access and use the maps in a GIS. Some of the above maps and their layouts/plots are provided also in ArcView Project (*.apr) format. These maps can be displayed or queried using ArcView software. All the textual documents are in PDF files for which shareware is provided on the CD-ROM