The Walloon part (French and German speaking parts) of the soil map of Belgium can be consulted or bought at the Laboratory of Geopedology of the Gembloux Agricultural University.
Out of 270 sheets covering the whole region at 1/20.000, 214 (80 % of the Walloon territory) of them have been officially printed in colour and 56 (20 %) left unpublished at different stages of preparation.
Each sheet covers 8,000 ha and is sold at 40 euros except those at international borders which are partial and therefore sold at 25 euros.
Each published sheet is accompanied by an explanatory booklet providing information on the physiography (topography, hydrography, geology, landscape, climate), the constitution/formation of soils (constituent materials, hydrology, genesis, classification, description and agricultural suitability even forest) as well as various considerations (land use, human geography, …).
The published sheets can be ordered or consulted and the unpublished sheets only consulted at the following address :

An appointment for consultation can be made by phone from Monday to Friday between 1.30 - 4.30 pm.

Based on the above mentioned Belgian soil map at 1/20,000, the digital soil map of Wallonia (DSMW) is composed of a cartographic database describing the soil characteristics of the region. Tool for a better soil management, this database has been integrated in a regional geographical information system, only accessible by intranet, where the soil layer could be used in relation with information concerning other aspects of land development (relief, land use, water, cadastral register, …).

The different operations of the digitalization have been : map drawing finalization of non edited sheets, creation of an image layer, vectorial capture of source objects, building up of the topology, characterization of the objects, local geometrical corrections, creation of a continuous layer (edge-matching), creation of a unique and exhaustive legend.
The DSMW in figures corresponds to: 16,000 km2; 600,000 soil units (polygons); 6,000 pedological symbols.

The advantages of this computerized cartographic database are numerous :

• continuity: suppression of the "paper" map divisions,
• better legibility: the map comprises an important number of different soils which are sometimes very difficult to distinguish on the "paper" map. In the database, the information associated to each soil unit is automatically identifiable and without error or risk of confusion,
• greater accessibility: the integration of the database in a server of cartographic data offers the possibility to access in real time the pedological information for any part of the regional territory,
• thematic analyses: the integration of the soil map into a geographical information system (GIS) offers many possibilities in terms of thematic analysis in combination with other layers of information (relief, hydrology, land use, vegetation,…).
• Thanks also to this digital product, it is now possible to print when asked an equivalent to the unpublished 1/20,000 paper sheets.

The booklet of the "revised legend" (in French) can be downloaded or obtained on request from the above mentioned Laboratory.

Maps of the main soil types have been derived and can be printed at 1/250,000 - A0 format (European scale), at 1/500,000 (comparison with the map of soil associations - Maréchal and Tavernier, 1974) and at 1/750,000 - A3 format (extension action for large audience) with adapted legends.

It is a production of the Soil-Ecology-Territory and Forest and Nature Management Units: B. Bah (since 09/2003), C. Bracke (02/2001-04/2004), X. Legrain (since 04/2005), P. Veron (since 02/2001) and 8 technicians (02/2001-04/2004), under the direction of L. Bock, J. Rondeux and P. Lejeune.
With the contribution of P. Engels and G. Colinet.
And with the financial support of the Walloon Region, General Direction of Agriculture, which is the owner of the digital data.

Contact person for availability: