Establishment and Application of an Integrated Soil Resource Information System (ISIRS) for Hilly Ultisols in China

Red soils, broadly equivalent to Ultisols in the US taxonomy system, could be a very important soil resource in southern China. However, due to extensive use and severe degradation, these soils require to be carefully managed and utilised if they are to be put into production. An Integrated Soil Resource Information System (ISRIS) based on remote sensing and A geographic information system (GIS) could play an important role in the survey, evaluation, utilization and management of the red soil resource. An ISRIS of Zhejiang Province (1:500,000), Quzhou City (1:250,000), and Longyou County (1:50,000) was compiled and integrated into a running system using ARC/INFO and Mapobject software. This paper introduces the system design, database creation and system functions and it focuses particularly on the development of applied models, such as red soil resource classification and mapping, suitability evaluation, erosion risk evaluation, p1ant utilization zones etc. The problems of ISRIS study and its developing strategy are also discussed.