Development of an Online Soil Valuation Database

There is a constant need for the rational evaluation of every individual piece of land. To provide continuously upgraded, precise technical and economic assessment, an online digital geographic information system was developed. At the roots of the system are cadastral maps from the land registry and soil maps at the scale of 1:10,000. The basis of the technical land bonitation* is the D‐e‐Meter system, which is used not only for croplands but also for grasslands and forests. * As defined by FAO (2003), page 9, “soil bonitation is the comparative assessment of the land quality and productivity with a representative level of agricultural activity. Bonitation involves an analysis of the soil properties, both natural and human‐induced, that determine its crop carrying capacity, both its natural productive capacity and that obtained through agricultural activities.” The algorithm for the calculation of the land quality index, which is the core of the D‐e‐Meter system, was developed with a database of 60,000 pl...