Pre-Study to supplement the 8 x 8 km grid of the soil inventory 2021–2025

In the years 2021–2025, the forest soil survey of 1993 on the 8 x 8 km sub-grid of the National Forest Inventory (Level I of ICP Forests) will be repeated. This grid does not cover all combinations of soil formation factors (especially geology, climate, vegetation and relief parameters) and environmental factors (especially deposition) that potentially occur in Switzerland. Targeted supplementary soil profile surveys would strengthen the statistical relationship between spatial soil formation factors and pedological characteristics. This would then significantly improve the basis for spatial extrapolation of point data and ultimately the production of soil maps.

The study aims to answer two main questions:

1. How representative are the soil profiles of the 8 x 8 km grid together with other already characterized soil profiles with respect to the factors mentioned above?

2. How many additional soil profiles are needed to adequately cover so far underrepresented regions and factor combinations?