Digital soil map of Quintana Roo, Mexico

ABSTRACT

A digital soil map of Quintana Roo was compiled at a 50 m pixel resolution using a geomorphopedological approach to produce a map that reflects a synoptic view of the geomorphology, environmental conditions and associated soils. Initially, it was developed using a geopedological approach and then converted to a digital map. The map was derived from soil-forming factors using mathematical methods to infer information in places where data were not available. Its compilation included three stages; the first two follow the geopedological approach that consists of a synthesis of data from the characterization of the geomorphological landscapes (vertical dissection, karst geomorphometrics, failures, geology) and soils, and the third stage incorporating environmental components (climate and vegetation) and related variables through various methods of statistical analysis (cluster, principal components and classification analysis) to obtain the pattern of soil distribution and to develop a model for the digital soil map of the study area.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial analysis
• distribution of soils
• soil-forming factors
• soil geography

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Statewide Program of Action on Climate Change of Quintana Roo for its support in the field work and the UQROO-FOMIX-2012 Project for granting permission to use the computing equipment for statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Patricia Fragoso-Servón http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0863-7156