(Tetum) Seeds of Life (SoL) has brought together some of its best data sources to bring you the map, “Soils of Timor-Leste, 2015”.
The map has been produced in English and Tetun at high and medium resolution for free download and print. It was designed to be printed at A0 paper size but can also be read (just) at A3 at high and medium resolution to suit your needs. It stores in SoL Google Drive that can be accessed without login.
Access the Soil maps and data from Google Drive now
Timor-Leste Soil Map can be downloaded and printed
This map is packed with useful soil information in relation to Timor-Leste such as soil texture, pH, slope, rainfall, geology, hydrogeology, and other information with easy-to-follow legends and keys. Some practical explanations also included such as the impact of micronutrient deficiency and working with slopes. The main map is annotated with photos to show the type of soils and farming potential across the country.
You are welcome to download it and print copies for your project or research, as it contains plenty of information to run a training session to raise awareness and increase understanding of soils.
The map, however, is just the beginning. SoL also made available the full soil data set used to create the map as well as other resources. The features include the:
- Digitized shapefile of O Solos De Timor
- Soil area data with codes to match the shapefile (excel file)
- 286 soil test locations and associated data
- 183 soil tests from 2013
- A range of QGIS colour styles to help you get into mapping
- Google Earth file for easy access to the 286 O Solos soil tests.
All these features will allow you to make your own maps of your area of focus. Check out things like erosion risk and rocky soils. All the mapping for this task was done on QGIS, a free and very powerful map program.
If you want to see some of the soil, slope, climate and hydrogeology data at suco level then take a look at our Suco Information Sheets. We are just about to release the final 2 Municipalities of Dili and Oecussi.
SoL would like to thank Ted Griffin, the staff at TMap, Patrick Niemeyer and ALGIS in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and many others for their support in this project.
And finally, the data presented is intended to give an indication only at a national scale – to really understand the soil you’ll need to get your hands dirty and investigate it in the field.
See also other soil resources Seeds of Life also has other useful resources available for free on its website including maps, climate data, soil data, climate posters, agricultural posters.
