Improving sustainable planning with high quality AI-developed soil maps

To meet the sustainable development goals and enable societal transformation, there is a strong need to plan and align human land-use with the needs of the environment, taking climate change effects into account. The number one tool to succeed in sustainable spatial planning is accurate and detailed maps.

However, despite all advancements in digitalization and satellite data, we are today still mostly using maps developed by manual interpretation of aerial photos more than 50-years ago – maps with a low level of detail that fails to show key landscape features hidden below the tree canopy.

To provide maps with sufficient detail to allow sustainable land use management and climate adaptation, we will utilize recent technical leaps in laser scanning of the landscape to yield a high resolution digital elevation model, and combine this with artificial intelligence and national field datasets to generate new methods for improved mapping of soil conditions in Sweden.

Meeting the needs for accurate information on soil conditions, expressed by key agencies and practitioners, we will develop methods for providing detailed maps of the surface geology and soil depth.

In a continuous interactive process, researchers and geologists will in this project work together with end-users to create maps enabling efficient and effective spatial planning of built environments and infrastructure, as well as restoration, water protection and climate adaptation.