A One-Day Soil and Water management workshop is to be held on Tuesday 14th May, 2013. In overview, effective soil and water management are essential in order to optimise crop yields and yield quality and soil functionality for sustainable, profitable UK food production. This one-day course provides a concise technical overview of key factors pertinent to effective soil and water management as well as practical demonstrations of soil properties conducive to and constraining effective water management.

To be held at Cranfield University (Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL), for further course details and instructions on registering, please download the course brochure

A new texture triangle tool has been developed to help our users determine particle size classes from soil samples using the Soil Survey of England and Wales definitions.

A new guide to the Soilscapes of England and Wales has been added to the Soils Guide toolkit described below.

A long-standing project to capture the many thousands of photographs captured in the field by our former surveyors has culminated in their launch as a new web resource.

We have added these to the new Soils Guide toolkit described below. When selecting a soil series, you will be presented with a range of descriptive and diagrammatic information on that soil type, now you will also see the related photographs from our archives.

Happy New Year from the LandIS team! To start the year off, try out our new interactive Soils Guide toolkit to explore the various soils of England and Wales. You can use the tool to 'drill down' into the various recognised soils categories to understand their composition and properties.

Soil survey activities in England and Wales were undertaken systematically only from the 1950's. Before that there were attempts to highlight the national soil resources of the two countries, but it was not until the establishment of the Soil Survey of England and Wales (or 'SSEW') at Rothamsted Experimental Station in Hertfordshire in 1954 that this process commenced in earnest. The National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI) at Cranfield University today is the direct descendent of this organisation and is the custodian of all the national soils information and data gathered during the survey.

Two new video presentations have been added to our set of video briefings explaining the history of soil survey in England and Wales, the soil classification system and some examples of how soils information is used today.

There has been a reorganisation at NSRI, and we wish to keep you informed of these changes, and ensure you know the appropriate staff to contact.

Geohazards – Insurance and the Water Industry

Timothy Farewell has been serving you over the last 10 years as the main contact for all your LandIS enquiries. The geohazards area has seen significant growth in the last few years, and so Tim will now be concentrating on the development of our geohazard products for the Insurance and Water industries. These include subsidence, storm and flood events as well as pipe corrosion and fracture potential. He will be supporting this area with more of a focus on targeted research. You can contact Tim on 01234 75 2978, or via email at t.s.farewell@cranfield.ac.uk

All other soil data, soil site reporter and soilscapes viewer enquiries

Caroline Keay and Sara Larman will now be stepping up to assist you with all your other soil data needs. Caroline has been working behind the scenes on the LandIS databases for nearly 25 years and has a thorough knowledge of all the LandIS datasets and a good understanding of Soil Systems and processes in England and Wales. Sara Larman has been a key member of the LandIS team for over eight years, helping soil data clients receive the best data for their needs. Sara will be handing many of the initial enquiries as well as providing support for your licencing and administration requirements. The new telephone number for all your general LandIS enquiries, and for more information on specific datasets is 01234 752992.

To discuss new or existing licences, renewals, modifications or updates, please call Sara on 01234 75 0111 (ext.2772)

Alternatively, you can email Caroline and Sara on nsridata@cranfield.ac.uk

Paper soil maps and books

We offer a range of detailed and regional soil maps and books covering England and Wales. To purchase these books, please contact Zoe Payne on 01234 750111 (ext.2772) You can also email Zoe on nsri.publications@cranfield.ac.uk

We hope this updated list helps and we hope to hear from you soon. Thanks!

Stephen Hallett presented a paper, jointly with Lynda Deeks, concerning “A history of Soil Survey in England and Wales” at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) in Vienna in April. The paper outlined the tale of soil survey activities from the earliest days, charting the work of pioneers such as GW.Robinson in drawing together the consensus for the survey with the then Ministry of Agriculture, then following its inception and ultimate transfer from Bangor to Rothamsted in the post-war years.

The work of the surveyors was outlined leading up to the production of the national soil map and its concurrent computerisation as an enabler for the broad range of monitoring, land suitability and thematic output applications that followed.

This talk has now been made available as an online presentation.

We have recently launched an interactive document reader service for some of our key, popular download documents relating to LandIS and the datasets within. We hope this will make it easier to browse through the information contained.

It's important for us to keep in touch with users of the popular LandIS Soilscapes Viewer service, and the requirements user have of this service as we commence a process of redeveloping the offering. We have therefore launched a new User Survey for LandIS to enable us to gain an overview of the ways the data and services are used. Please take a moment to complete the survey.

Visit the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI)'s newly updated and extensively restructured institutional website to find out more. The data and services provided by LandIS derive from and are used in all areas of NSRI's research, particularly in Soil Spatial Informatics but also Spatial Geosciences, Soil Systems and Soil and Land Management. The new website also has sections describing NSRI's general capabilities as well as our world-leading soil science facilities.

As the summer of 2011 looms, the weather patterns suggest that following drought conditions this could be a bad year for house subsidence. But how does wetting and drying affect soils - especially clay? have a look at our short explanatory video made by Cranfield Soil Scientists explaining how clay swelling occurs. The most common cause of subsidence in the UK results from the drying and subsequent shrinkage of such clay soils. Cranfield works with leading insurance companies to help them understand the areas of the UK which are most vulnerable to subsidence, flooding and other natural perils, and markets the Natural Perils Directory (NPD).

Cranfield University offer a well-respected MSc in Geographical Information Management (GIM) which can be taken full or part-time and which is designed very much with the practical environmental application of GIS technologies in mind. The course is taught by staff including the CatchIS development team.

The MSc is considered suitable for graduates wishing to specialise in or develop knowledge in the practical application of the geographical information technologies of remote sensing, geographical information systems (GIS), spatial data management and the global positioning system (GPS). The part-time option will allow practitioners to enhance their professional development within their current employment.

The Cranfield MSc programme commences in September. Typically the part-time programme is offered on a two-year basis on a "module on, module off" basis throughout. Each of the eight course modules lasts a fortnight, with opportunities for supporting home working.

For information on the MSc Geographical Information Management:
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/students/courses/page1503.jsp

For information for prospective students:
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/students/index.jsp

For information on tuition fees:
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/students/funding/tuition_fees.pdf

Please contact us for further details.

Former Soil Survey of England and Wales colleague Richard Hartnup has announced the recent publication of his excellent book "Gold Under Bracken - the Land of Wales" which has recently been published by Y Lolfa Press. Richard notes how this was written for a general readership, describing the scenery and landscapes of Wales in terms of the various soil types to be found, with lavish illustrations! The book is available from Amazon or any good bookshop.

The Soils Site Reporter represents a popular, free service used by a range of persons. We are about to commence a programme to overhaul and improve the offerings provided through the reporter. We invite you to assist us in this process by letting us
have some feedback on your thoughts of the service and what you would like to see in the future.

With the INSPIRE journey now well advanced towards a standards-compliant world for geospatial data across Europe, a new metadata service has been launched for users of the LandIS data holdings. Founded on the open source tool GeoNetwork, the new service offers users a chance to better interact with our data holdings, and for distributed searches to now integrate LandIS soil data offerings.

We are launching the first of what we hope will become many short video clips explaining about the datasets in LandIS, their background and how they can be best used. As an alternative to reading texts, video makes for an immediate means to communicate the important messages inherent in the LandIS data holdings. Over the coming months, we shall be adding a series of further short video clips covering a broad range of the holdings and applications for LandIS. Let us know what you think!

In a fitting tribute to Professor Peter Bullock (1937-2008), a former Director of the Soil Survey of England and Wales and its successors in Cranfield University, SSLRC and now NSRI, Cranfield have named one of the key buildings on the Cranfield campus as 'The Bullock Building'. The building was kindly launched by Professor David Kell of BBSRC in a ceremony that brought together a wide range of friends and colleagues - many who have also had associations with Peter and his work. The Bullock Building at Cranfield is the home of the Natural Resources Department in Cranfield within which is the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI). The building also forms the 'hub' of Cranfield's soil activities, being also the home of the Integrated Environmental Systems Institute (IESSI), The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS), The Institute of Agri-Engineers (IAGRE) and the River Restoration Centre (RRC). Other photographs of this event are available here

A new service is launched by the LandIS team called Treefit. Treefit is a database service that can match some 60 tree species to areas having their optimum growing conditions across England and Wales. The system draws on the unique databases of soil, climate and landuse in Cranfield's Land Information System to determine the tree suitability for nominated regions, as well as potential timber yield classes. Assessments are made which can provide recommended management regimes, and suitability for such factors as biomass, fencing, floristry, game covert and timber. Treefit is aimed at applications including: preparation for planting grant applications; land restoration planning; community forest action planning; carbon offsetting studies; and regional land use and ecosystem services policy planning.

The CatchIS team are to hold the first CatchIS User Group conference to allow the community of CatchIS users to share experiences and help to guide the future development of the tool. CatchIS provides a powerful suite of tools and models to assist in the strategic and operational management of water resources at the catchment scale, and to provide an informed and rational response to the Water Framework Directive and to the development of Water Safetey Plans. Further information on this conference is available : catchis@cranfield.ac.uk.

The National Soil Archive and Publication store have now been moved from their old location at the Silsoe campus to a new home on Cranfield Campus.

The publications store of books and maps is now located within easy access of the publications officer allowing a more efficient turn around on book sales. In the moving process the materials have also been organised and catalogued more efficiently.

The National Soil Archive holds not only a large collection of physical soil samples but also soil data, maps and information collected over many years. Materials include:

• Over 150,000 Auger bore records;
• Over 10,000 full soil profile descriptions (only a fraction of which have been captured electronically);
• 1:10,000 scale field sheets covering almost the whole of England and Wales;
• a large collection of published papers relating to soil;
• a large collection of aerial photographs;
• a substantial collection of satellite imagery (currently being transferred from the original Magnetic tape storage media);
• an old, valuable collection of soil micro-morphology slides;
• the historical documents of the original Soil Survey of England and Wales;
• The WOSSAC map and document collection;

If any of these sound interesting to you and you would like to inquire about access to the material please contact nsridata@cranfield.ac.uk

NSRI's Professor Mark Kibblewhite outlines how agriculture is the industry of the future.

The LandIS team present a new look for the project website. A more contemporary, standards-compliant format improves the experience users will have and hopefully make it now easier to learn more about LandIS and its capabilities.

The LandIS team joined the ESRI Business Associate scheme. ESRI are the supplier of the leading, industry-standard GIS system that systems derived from LandIS, such as the CatchIS software system are built around. Being an ESRI Business Associate allows the CatchIS team to offer a wide range of GIS software and services alongside the CatchIS tool, allowing for a greater service to CatchIS users.