The project "Making the value of soil visible" has been successfully completed and laid important foundations for future soil-related work. The goal of the project was to test and further develop new methods and tools for efficient, high-quality, and large-scale soil mapping. Knowledge of the quality and properties of soils facilitates weighing different usage and conservation claims and making soil-relevant decisions.

As part of a pilot mapping covering approximately 1,000 hectares in Wohlen/Meikirch, innovative approaches to digital soil mapping, modern field survey methods, new sampling and analytical procedures, and digital tools for data collection were tested. The results show that digital methods combined with high-quality field data can significantly contribute to making mapping processes more efficient, targeted, and robust. At the same time, important insights into quality assurance, knowledge transfer, and the organizational implementation of mappings were gained. Concrete recommendations for action for future large-scale soil mappings in the Canton of Bern were derived from this.

For sustainable soil use, understanding their spatial variability is central. Therefore, the soil diversity of the Canton of Bern was systematically studied based on 42 landscape transects. Soil formation conditions, landscape forms, and the distribution of soils were analyzed and compiled in a pedological overview. This provides a comprehensive basis for understanding the soil geographical landscapes of the Canton of Bern for the first time. In addition to detailed landscape profiles and profile descriptions, a cantonal overview map of soil types was created at a scale of 1:25,000, which serves as an important basis for future mapping projects (accessible on the Geoportal).

The findings from this project will be incorporated into the follow-up project “From Drill Bit to Irrigation Nozzle”. More information about this can be found here.