Chapter 5 Developing a Digital Soil Map for Finland

This chapter describes our methods and experiences of making a 1:250,000 georeferenced soil databases for Finland with digital soil mapping systems. We use the following source materials: maps of quaternary deposits, geophysical low-altitude flight measurements, various GIS – materials from different sources and old soil surveys. We are aware that our pretty simplified way of digital soil mapping, mostly based on a parent material (lithogenic) approach, is vulnerable to international criticism and that is why we explain why this is possible in Finland, which consists of young soils (<12,000 years).