Terrain Attribute Soil Mapping Aiding the Detailed Albania Soil Map.

Currently Albania has a national soil database at 1:250,000 scale and more detailed soil database for the coastal areas only at scale 1:50,000. Inceptisols and Alfisols cover approximately 50% of the area followed by Mollisols and Entisols with about 15%. The terrain in Albania is complex and steep making it ideal for mapping soils based on terrain attributes derived from elevation data.  There is need for more detailed soil maps for resource management.  The objective of this research was to produce a detailed soil map at scales 1:24,000-1:50,000 based on landscape models using terrain attributes and landform classification schemes derived from ASTER 30m elevation data. Initially, geologic parent material maps and climate were used to divide the country in similar regions. Terrain attributes were used to further divide each region in similar landforms that were further classified into landform components that typically are associated with specific soils. This classification provided the first raster based map that could be used for field planning of soil survey and validation.