World Reference Base For Soil Resources
The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is the international standard taxonomic soil classification system endorsed by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). It was developed by an international collaboration coordinated by the International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) and sponsored by the IUSS and the FAO via its Land & Water Development division. It replaces the previous FAO soil classification.
The WRB borrows heavily from modern soil classification concepts, including USDA soil taxonomy, the legend for the FAO Soil Map of the World 1988, the Référentiel Pédologique and Russian concepts. The classification is based mainly on soil morphology as an expression pedogenesis. A major difference with USDA soil taxonomy is that soil climate is not part of the system, except insofar as climate influences soil profile characteristics. As far as possible, diagnostic criteria match those of existing systems, so that correlation with national and previous international systems is as straightforward as possible.
The WRB is meant for correlation of national and local systems. The level of detail corresponds to USDA soil taxonomy subgroups, without the soil climate information. It is not detailed enough for mapping at scales larger than about 1:200k, although proposal have been made to couple WRB with substrate information to map at 1:50k in regional studies.
Read more about World Reference Base For Soil Resources: Key To The WRB Reference Soil Groups (2006), WRB 98 Soil Groups
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