LRA win large soil survey contract in Scotland

28th May 2010

 

Land Research Associates have won a large contract to survey over 7,000 ha of land for Forest Enterprise Scotland (FES) in order to assist detailed forest coupe design planning. The contract was awarded after a comprehensive process of pre-qualification, interview and technical assessment, and will run until March 2011.

The project will involve a detailed survey of soils in five forest blocks in FES’s Dumfries and Borders region, three forest blocks in Galloway, six in the Cowal and Trossachs region and twelve in the Scottish Lowlands. The outputs will be in the form of ArcMap soil polygons, linear and point soil features and a technical report for each survey area explaining the detail of the main soils found and setting the survey area in context of climate, geology and topography.

The contract win was based on LRA’s long-established skills in accurate description, classification and mapping of soils, identification of soil fertility and wetness from vegetation indicators, and capability in geographic information systems. It follows previous projects for Forestry Commission mapping soils in Radnor Forest, investigating soil constraints for establishment of community woodland in south-east England and the Midlands, and detailed description, sampling and classification of the soils of 98 sites in England and Wales as part of the EU Biosoil project.

Survey work will start in the beginning of June 2010 with the four-man survey team well armed with insect repellent!

Forest soil assessment for the Biosoil project

 

 

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