Creating an Initial Digital Soil Map of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in Central Asia and South Asia. Climatic conditions in Afghanistan are classified as arid and semi-arid, characterized by cold winters, hot and dry summers, desert steppe, highland temperature and precipitation, low relative humidity and high evaporation. Most of the precipitation (381mm/year) occurs as winter snow and spring rains. The territory is mountainous and only 12% of the total area is suitable for cultivation. Despite the small amount of arable land, Afghanistan economy is centered on agriculture. However, limited studies have been conducted on constructing digital soil maps which is the basis of agriculture. The main objectives of this study are to identify the soil resources of Afghanistan and to generate an accurate and inexpensive digital soil map. Digital soil maps are useful in infrastructure, resource management, and proper land use planning. The version 1.0 map was made by employing knowledge-based inference with fuzzy logic. Most of the inference was based on the landscape, topography and terrain derivatives including slope, aspect, elevation, plane and profile curvatures, specific catchment area and compound topographic index (CTI). This project will benefit the farmers and serve as a good source for land decision and policy makers.