Maps of indicators of soil hydraulic properties for

Europe
European soil database (distribution version v2.0). European Commission Joint Research Centre, Italy
(available after registration from ESDAC).

Hijmans, R. J., 2015. raster: Geographic data analysis and modeling. R package version 2.3-24. URL
http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=raster

Jones, R. J. A., Hiederer, R., Rusco, E., Montanarella, L., October 2005. Estimating organic carbon in the
soils of Europe for policy support. European Journal of Soil Science 56, 655-671 (available after
registration from ESDAC).

Toth, B., Weynants, M., Nemes, A., Mako, A., Bilas, G., Toth, G., 2014. New generation of hydraulic
pedotransfer functionns for Europe. European Journal of Soil Science

European Soil Database v2.0 (vector and attribute

data)
Panagos Panos. The European soil database (2006) GEO: connexion, 5 (7), pp. 32-33.

For ESDB v2.0: The European Soil Database distribution version 2.0, European Commission and the
European Soil Bureau Network, CD-ROM, EUR 19945 EN, 2004.

European Soil Database v2 Raster Library 1kmx1km

1. Panagos Panos. The European soil database (2006) GEO: connexion, 5 (7), pp. 32-33.

2. ESDBv2 Raster Library - a set of rasters derived from the European Soil Database
distribution v2.0 (published by the European Commission and the European Soil Bureau
Network, CD-ROM, EUR 19945 EN); Marc Van Liedekerke, Arwyn Jones, Panos
Panagos ; 2006.

Net erosion and sediment transport using

WaTEM/SEDEM (for EU)
Sediment transport. Net soil loss (negative values); deposition (positive values) at 100m resolution; EU-
28 Member states (Size: 2.5 GB).

The data include also mxd files (for different ArcGIS versions) and .LYR file.

There are also available data at 25m. We don't upload those data due to high volume of data. In case you
need this for an area, please contact either Panos Panagos (panos.panagos@ec.europa.eu ) or Pasquale
Borrelli (lino.borrelli@yahoo.it).

Reference:
Borrelli, P., Van Oost, K., Meusburger, K., Alewell, C., Lugato, E., Panagos, P. 2018. A step towards a
holistic assessment of soil degradation in Europe: Coupling on-site erosion with sediment transfer and
carbon fluxes. Environmental Research, 161: 291-298.

Soil Erodibility (K- Factor) High Resolution dataset

for Europe
K-Factor: Background information

The greatest obstacle to soil erosion modelling at larger spatial scales is the lack of data on soil
characteristics. One key parameter for modelling soil erosion is the soil erodibility, expressed as
the K-factor in the widely used soil erosion model, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and
its revised version (RUSLE). The K-factor, which expresses the susceptibility of a soil to erode,
is related to soil properties such as organic matter content, soil texture, soil structure and
permeability. With the Land Use/Cover Area frame Survey (LUCAS) soil survey in 2009 a pan-
European soil dataset is available for the first time, consisting of around 20,000 points across 25
Member States of the European Union.

The high-resolution soil erodibility map (500m) version 2014 incorporates certain improvements
over the coarse-resolution map (10km) version 2011:

 High resolution dataset (500m) and application of Cubist regression-interpolation (better

spatial accuracy)

 Soil structure was for the first time included in the K-factor estimation

 Coarse fragments were taken into account for the better estimation of soil permeability

 Surface stone content, which acts as protection against soil erosion was for the first time
included in the K-factor estimation. This correction is of great interest for the
Mediterranean countries where stoniness is an important regulating parameter of soil
erosion

 The estimated soil erodibility dataset is verified against local, regional and national data
found in the literature (21 Studies)

 Cyprus and Malta have been included in the analysis

K-factor high-resolution dataset (500m) - Version 2014

The aim of this study is the generation of a harmonised high-resolution soil erodibility map (with
a grid cell size of 500 m) for the 25 EU Member States. Soil erodibility was calculated for the
LUCAS survey points using the nomograph of Wischmeier and Smith (1978). A Cubist
regression model was applied to correlate spatial data such as latitude, longitude, remotely
sensed and terrain features in order to develop a high-resolution soil erodibility map. The mean
K-factor for Europe was estimated at 0.032 t ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1 with a standard deviation of
0.009 t ha h ha-1 MJ-1 mm-1. The yielded soil erodibility dataset compared well with the
published local and regional soil erodibility data. However, the incorporation of the protective
effect of surface stone cover, which is usually not considered for the soil erodibility calculations,
resulted in an average 15% decrease of the K-factor. The exclusion of this effect in K-factor
calculations is likely to result in an overestimation of soil erosion, particularly for the
Mediterranean countries, where highest percentages of surface stone cover were observed.

The soil erodibility dataset overcomes the problems of limited data availability for K-factor
assessment and presents a high quality resource for modellers who aim at soil erosion estimation
on local/regional, national or European scale.

Title: Soil Erodibility in Europe High Resolution dataset (500m)

Description: This map provides a complete picture of the soil erodibility in the European Union
member states. It is derived from the LUCAS 2009 point survey exercise and the European Soil
Database.
Spatial coverage: 25 Member States of the European Union where data available (All EU
member states except BG, RO, HR).
Pixel size: 500m
Projection: ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Temporal coverage: 2014
Input data source: LUCAS point data, European Soil Database

Download the OFFICIAL datasets (as published in the Peer-review Journal Science of the Total
Environment in 2014):

 K-factor dataset [72 MB]

 Kst-factor (incorporating Stoniness) dataset [72 MB]

 Effect of Stoniness in K-factor (% reduction) [67 MB]

For the European Union (EU28) assessments, we also make available the EU-28 datasets
covering all the EU28 Member States:

 K-factor (EU-28) dataset [78 MB]

 Kst-factor (EU-28) dataset (incorporating Stoniness) [80 MB]

References:
A complete description of the methodogoly and the application in Europe is described in the
paper:
Panagos, P., Meusburger, K., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Alewell, C.
Soil erodibility in Europe: A high-resolution dataset based on LUCAS, Science of Total
Environment, 479–480 (2014) pp. 189–200
Download the article (Open Access): 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.02.010

Soil erosion by water (RUSLE2015)

Download the data

Soil erosion by water 100m resolution; EU-28 Member states (Size: 2 GB)

References

1. Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Robinson, D.A. Common Agricultural Policy: Tackling soil loss across
Europe. Nature 526, 195 (07 October 2015), doi:10.1038/526195d

2. Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Poesen, J., Ballabio, C., Lugato, E., Meusburger, K., Montanarella, L.,
Alewell, .C. 2015. The new assessment of soil loss by water erosion in Europe. Environmental
Science & Policy. 54: 438-447. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.08.012

3. Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, C., Alewell, C., Lugato, E., Montanarella, L., 2015. Estimating
the soil erosion cover-management factor at European scale. Land Use policy 48C: 38-50

4. Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K., van der Zanden, E.H., Poesen, J., Alewell, C. 2015.
Modelling the effect of support practices (P-factor) on the reduction of soil erosion by water at
European Scale. Environmental Science & Policy 51: 23-34

5. Panagos, P., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K., Klik, A., Rousseva, S., Tadic, M.P.,
Michaelides, S., Hrabalíková, M., Olsen, P., Aalto, J., Lakatos, M., Rymszewicz, A., Dumitrescu, A.,
Beguería, S., Alewell, C. Rainfall erosivity in Europe. Sci Total Environ. 511 : 801-814.

6. Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K. 2015. A New European Slope Length and
Steepness Factor (LS-Factor) for Modeling Soil Erosion by Water. Geosciences, 5: 117-
126

7. Panagos, P., Meusburger, K., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Alewell, C. (2014) Soil erodibility in Europe:
A high-resolution dataset based on LUCAS. Science of Total Environment, 479–480: 189–200

Cover Management factor (C-factor) for the EU

C-Factor

In arable lands, the C-factor was estimated using crop statistics (% of land per crop) and data on
management practices such as conservation tillage, plant residues and winter crop cover. The C-factor in
non-arable lands was estimated by weighting the range of literature values found according to fractional
vegetation cover, which was estimated based on the remote sensing dataset Fcover. Conservation
management practices (reduced/no tillage, use of cover crops and plant residues) reduce the C-factor by
on average 19.1% in arable lands

Title: Cover Management(C-factor) factor of soil erosion by water at European Scale.

Description: The C-factor (Cover and Management) is presented at 100m resolution. This C-factor was
estimated for a) arable lands based on crop composition and for b) all other land uses (non-arable) based
on the vegetation density and land cover type. The management practices (reduced tillage/no till, plant
residues and winter cover crops) were taken into account in estimating C-factor in arable lands.

Spatial coverage: European Union (28 Countries)

Pixel size: 100 m

Measurement Unit: Dimensionless

Projection: ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

Temporal coverage: 2010

References:

A complete description of the methodology and the application in Europe is described in the paper:

Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, C., Alewell, C., Lugato, E., Montanarella, L., 2015. Estimating the soil
erosion cover-management factor at European scale. Land Use policy journal. 48C, 38-50.
doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.05.021

The References to the source are always necessary!

Data

The user can download 2 different datasets:

1) The C-factor dataset is in Raster format: Cover-management factor (C-factor) in the European Union at
100m resolution (1.1 GB)

2) Shapefile for arable lands where the user can map:

a) Cover-Management factor (C-factor) in arable lands at regional (NUTS2) level in the European Union
(field: C_factor)

b) Influence of Tillage practices on C-factor reduction (field: ImTillage)

c) Influence of plant residues on C-factor reduction (field: ImResid)

d) Influence of cover crops on C-factor reduction (field: ImCover).

Moreover, in this shape file there are additional fields:

- ImAll: Impact of all 3 management practices (Tillage, plant residues, cover crops)

- C_factor_N: C-factor based only on crop composition (without taking into account the 3 management
practices)

- Only _Tilla, CoverCrop, Only_Resid: are the 3 C-factors taking into account only the corresponding
practice.

LS-factor (Slope Length and Steepness factor) for the EU

LS-Factor

The European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) developed a new pan-European high-resolution soil erosion
assessment to achieve a better understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of soil erosion in
Europe. The LS-calculation was performed using the original equation proposed by Desmet and Govers
(1996) and implemented using the System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA), which
incorporates a multiple flow algorithm and contributes to a precise estimation of flow accumulation. The
LS-factor dataset was calculated using a high-resolution (25 m) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the
whole European Union, resulting in an improved delineation of areas at risk of soil erosion as compared
to lower-resolution datasets.

Title: Slope Length and Steepness factor (LS-factor)

Description: The LS-calculation was performed using the original equation proposed by Desmet and
Govers (1996) and implemented using the System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA), which
incorporates a multiple flow algorithm and contributes to a precise estimation of flow accumulation.

Spatial coverage: European Union (28 Countries)

Pixel size: 25m and 100m

Measurement Unit: Dimensionless

Projection: ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

Information: Panos Panagos, Pasquale Borrelli, Katrin Meusburger*

European Commission, Institute of Environment and Sustainability, Land Resource Management Unit
AND *Institute of Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel

References:

A complete description of the methodology and the application in Europe is described in the paper:

Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K. (2015) A New European Slope Length and Steepness Factor (LS-
Factor) for Modeling Soil Erosion by Water. Geosciences, 5: 117-126.

Data

The LS-factor dataset is in Raster format. The public user can download 2 different resolution datasets :

a) European LS-factor map at 100m resolution (2.8 GB)

b) LS-factor map at 25m resolution per country. (below)

Austria: AT (0.7 GB)

Belgium: BE (0.3 GB)

Bulgaria: BG (1.0 GB)

Cyprus: CY (0.1 GB)

Czech Republic: CZ (0.7 GB)

Germany: DE (3.1 GB)

Denmark: DK (0.4 GB)

Estonia: EE (0.4 GB)

Spain: ES (4.3 GB)

Finland: FI (2.5 GB)

France: FR (5.7 GB)

Greece: GR (1.2 GB)

Croatia: HR (0.5 GB)

 Hungary: HU (0.8 GB)

Ireland: IE (0.6 GB)

Italy: IT (2.6 GB)

Lithuania: LT (0.6 GB)

Luxembourg: LU (0.02 GB)

Latvia: LV (0.6 GB)

Malta: MT (0.01 GB)

Netherlands: NL (0.3 GB)

Poland: PL (2.7 GB)

Portugal: PT (0.8 GB)

Romania: RO (2.1 GB)

Sweden: SE (3.6 GB)

Slovenia: SI (0.2 GB)

Slovakia: SK (0.5 GB)

United Kingdom: UK (2.7 GB)

Soil erosion in forestland in Europe (using RUSLE2015)

Soil erosion in forestland and forest harvest (Europe & Italian Case study)
1. European Forest Cover Change;
2. Soil Loss Potential;
3. Forest Harvest Layers (annual) for the Italian case study

Reference of source (Citations)

 Borrelli, P., Panagos, P., Langhammer, J., Apostol, B., Schütt, B. 2016. Assessment of the cover
changes and the soil loss potential in European forestland: First approach to derive indicators to
capture the ecological impacts on soil-related forest ecosystems. Ecological Indicators, 60, 1208–
1220

 Borrelli, P., Modugno, S. Panagos, P., Marchetti, M. Schütt, B. Montanarella, L. (2014). Detection
of harvested forest areas in Italy using Landsat imagery. Applied Geography 48 , 102-111.
  Borrelli, P., Märker, M., Panagos, P., Schütt, B. (2014). Modeling soil erosion and river sediment
yield for an intermountain drainage basin of the Central Apennines, Italy. Catena, 114, pp. 45–
58.

European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS

v2)
Data - Maps (Download)

 ELSUS_v2_six_datasets.zip: Contains ELSUS v2 and five ancillary datasets in formats described in

the metadata files [79.8 MB]

 ELSUS_v2_six_datasets_metadata.zip: Includes metadata files for all datasets above [0.41 MB]

References

 Wilde, M., Günther, A., Reichenbach, P., Malet, J.-P., Hervás, J., 2018. Pan-European landslide
susceptibility mapping: ELSUS Version 2. Journal of Maps, 14(2): 97-104 and supplemental map.

 Günther, A., Van Den Eeckhaut, M., Malet, J.-P., Reichenbach, P., Hervás, J., 2014. Climate-
physiographically differentiated Pan-European landslide susceptibility assessment using spatial
multi-criteria evaluation and transnational landslide information. Geomorphology, 224: 69-85

Metadata for all datasets:

Title: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2)

Description: Landslide susceptibility levels at continental scale derived from heuristic-statistical
modelling of main landslide conditioning factors using also landslide location data
Spatial coverage: All European Union member states except Malta, in addition to Albania,
Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein,
Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, and Switzerland
Cell size: 200 m
Format: Esri ASCII Grid
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Landslide susceptibility coding: 0 = no data; 1 = very low; 2 = low; 3 = moderate; 4 = high; 5 =
very high
Files: elsus_v2.asc and ancillary files
Ancillary datasets: Confidence Level Map of ELSUS v2, Climate-Physiographic regions, Slope
Angle, Lithology, and Land Cover
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018

Title: Confidence Level Map of the European Landslide Susceptibility Map ELSUS v2
Description: Confidence levels of the classified landslide susceptibility on EUROSTAT NUTS 3
regions. The levels have been calculated either statistically or by expert evaluation
Spatial coverage: All or most of Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, France,
Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and UK, and part of Belgium, Denmark, and Germany
Cell size: n.a.
Format: Esri Shapefile
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Confidence (reliability) values: good, moderate, poor, no information
Files: confidence.shp and ancillary files
Ancillary datasets: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2), Climate-
Physiographic regions, Slope Angle, Lithology, and Land Cover
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018

Title: Climate-Physiographic Regions

Description: Climate-physiographic regions derived from intersection of Köppen climate zones
with NORDREGIO mountain classification deduced from GTOPO30 information
Spatial coverage: All 28 European Union member states, in addition to Albania, Andorra,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Montenegro,
Norway, San Marino, Serbia, and Switzerland
Cell size: n.a.
Format: Esri Shapefile
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Climate-physiographic regions coding: 0 = coastal area; 1 = plain (arid/temperate climate with
dry summer); 2 = plain (temperate climate without dry period); 3 = plain (cold climate with
warm summer); 4 = plain (cold climate with cold summer); 5 = mountain (arid/temperate
climate); 6 = mountain (polar/cold climate)
Files: climate_phys_regions.shp and ancillary files
Ancillary datasets: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2), Confidence
Level Map of ELSUS v2, Slope Angle, Lithology, and Land Cover
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018

Title: Slope Angle

Description: Slope angle class values derived mainly from BGR’s EU 27 DEM data, resampled
to 200 m resolution
Spatial coverage: All 28 European Union member states, in addition to Andorra, Albania,
Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein,
Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, and Switzerland
Cell size: 200 m
Format: GeoTIFF
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Slope angle coding: 0 = no data; 1 = 0°; 2 = 1°-3°; 3 = 4°-6°; 4 = 7°-10°; 5 = 11°-15°; 6 = 16° -
20°; 7 = 21° - 30°; 8 = 31° - 82°
Files: slope.tif
Ancillary datasets: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2), Confidence
Level Map of ELSUS v2, Climate-Physiographic regions, Lithology, and Land Cover
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018
Title: Lithology
Description:Lithology class information derived from BGR’s IHME1500 data, rasterized to 200
m resolution
Spatial coverage: All European Union member states except Malta, in addition to Albania,
Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein,
Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, and Switzerland
Cell size: 200 m
Format: GeoTIFF
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Lithology coding: 0 = no data; 1 = schists, phyllites, quartzites and marbles; 2 = shales; 3 =
plutonic rocks; 4 = gneisses; 5 = sandstones and conglomerates; 6 = sandstones, conglomerates
and sands; 7 = limestones; 8 = sandstones, conglomerates and clays; 9 = gravels; 10 = sands; 11
= sandstones and marls; 12 = limestones, marlstones and clays; 13 = clays; 14 = marlstones and
limestones; 15 = marlstones, limestones and sands; 16 = limestones, marlstones and marls; 17 =
volcanic rocks; 18 = silts; 19 = claystones and clays
Files:lithology.tif
Ancillary datasets: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2), Confidence
Level Map of ELSUS v2, Climate-Physiographic regions, Slope Angle, and Land Cover
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018

Title: Land Cover

Description: Land cover class values derived from ESA GlobCover2009 data
(http://due.esrin.esa.int/page_globcover.php) resampled to 200 m resolution
Spatial coverage: All 28 European Union member states, in addition to Albania, Andorra,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Montenegro,
Norway, San Marino, Serbia, and Switzerland
Cell size: 200 m
Format: GeoTIFF
Map datum, projection: ETRS89, Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
Land Cover coding: 0 = no data; 1 = cropland; 2 = open forest; 3 = closed forest; 4 = shrub; 5 =
pasture/meadow; 6 = bare; 7 = artificial
Files: landcover.tif
Ancillary datasets: European Landslide Susceptibility Map version 2 (ELSUS v2), Confidence
Level Map of ELSUS v2, Climate-Physiographic regions, Slope Angle, and Lithology
Authoring organisations: BGR, CNR-IRPI, CNRS-EOST and EC-JRC.D
Release date: 12 February 2018

Rainfall Erosivity in the EU and Switzerland (R-factor)

R-Factor

Rainfall erosivity, considering rainfall amount and intensity, is an important parameter for soil erosion
risk assessment under future land use and climate change. Despite its importance, rainfall erosivity is
usually implemented in models with a low spatial and temporal resolution. Here, we present a complete
rainfall erosivity dataset (R-factor at 500m resolution ) for the European Union (28 Member States) and
Switzerland based on 1675 precipitation stations and 26,394 years of measurements. Gaussian Process
Regression(GPR) model was used to interpolate the rainfall erosivity values of single stations and to
generate the R-factor map.

Title: Rainfall erosivity in Europe

Spatial coverage: European Union (28 Countries) & Switzerland

Pixel size: 500m

Measurement Unit: MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr-1

Projection: ETRS89 Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area

Temporal coverage: 40 years - Predominant in the last decade: 2000 - 2010

References:

A complete description of the methodology and the application in European is described in the paper:

Panagos, P., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K., Klik, A., Rousseva, S., Tadic, M.P., Michaelides, S.,
Hrabalíková, M., Olsen, P., Aalto, J., Lakatos, M., Rymszewicz, A., Dumitrescu, A., Beguería, S., Alewell, C.
2015. Rainfall erosivity in Europe. Sci Total Environ. 511, pp. 801-814.

Panagos, P., Ballabio, C., Meusburger, K., Spinoni, J., Alewell, C., Borrelli, P. 2017. Towards estimates of
future rainfall erosivity in Europe based on REDES and WorldClim datasets. Journal of Hydrology, 548:
251-262.

Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P. , Spinoni, J., Meusburger, K., Michaelides, S., Beguería, S., Klik, A., Petan, S.,
Janecek, M., Olsen, P., Aalto, J., Lakatos, M., Rymszewicz, A., Dumitrescu, A., Tadić, M.P., Nazzareno, D.,
Kostalova, J., Rousseva, S., Banasik, K., L., Alewell, C. , Panagos, P. 2017. Mapping monthly rainfall
erosivity in Europe. Sci Total Environ. 579: 1298-1315

Panagos, P., Ballabio, C., Borrelli, P., Meusburger, K. 2016. Spatio-temporal analysis of rainfall erosivity
and erosivity density in Greece. Catena, 137, 2603, pp. 161-172

Panagos, P., Borrelli, P., Spinoni, J., Ballabio, C., Meusburger, K., Beguería, S., Klik, A., Michaelides, S.,
Petan, S., Hrabalíková, M., Olsen, P., Aalto, J., Lakatos, M., Rymszewicz, A., Dumitrescu, A., Tadic, M.P.,
Diodato, N., Kostalova, J., Rousseva, S., Banasik, K. Alewell, C. 2016. Monthly rainfall erosivity:
conversion factors for different time resolutions and regional assessments. Water, 8(4), No 119.
Data

R-factor map of Europe Union and Switzerland: Rainfall erosivity (MJ mm ha-1 h-1 yr-1) raster format
at 500m resolution (Panagos et al., 2015)

REDES: Rainfall Erosivity Database at European Scale. R-factor data for 1,675 stations (based on high
temporal resolution rainfall data) (Panagos et al., 2015; Panagos et al., 2016). Monthly R-factor values or
individual erosive (storm) events can be made available upon request.

Erosivity density: The R-factor normalised to annual precipitation amounts (MJ ha-1 h-1) raster format
at 500m resolution (Panagos et al., 2015)

Standard error of the estimates: Uncertainty of the R-factor prediction calculated with the GPR spatial
interpolation model (Panagos et al., 2015)

Future erosivity (projections for 2050 based on climate change) (Panagos et al., 2017)

Monthly R-factor in Europe: 12 monthly erosivity maps (Ballabio et al., 2017)

Seasonal R-factor in Europe: 4 seasonal erosivity maps (Ballabio et al., 2017)

Indicators of rainfall erosivity: K-means Clusters, Erosivity ratio, Coefficient of Variation, Weighted
Density, Month with highest R, Month with lowest R (Ballabio et al., 2017)

Monthly R-factor in Greece, Annual R-factor (plus standard error) in Greece, seasonal Erosivity Density
in Greece (Panagos et al., 2016)

R-factor in Switzerland : R-factor in Switzerland (2012 application) plus Code and Documentation
(Meusburger et al., 2012)
European Soil Database Derived data
Other Information
Soil
Topsoil (Filename) Subsoil (Filename) Unit
Property

Area of STU
STU_EU_ALLOCATE unitless
allocation

Depth
available to STU_EU_DEPTH_ROOTS cm
roots

Clay content STU_EU_T_CLAY STU_EU_S_CLAY %

Sand
STU_EU_T_SAND STU_EU_S_SAND %
content

Silt content STU_EU_T_SILT STU_EU_S_SILT %

Organic
carbon STU_EU_T_OC STU_EU_S_OC %
content

Bulk density STU_EU_T_BD STU_EU_S_BD g cm-3

Coarse
STU_EU_T_GRAVEL STU_EU_S_GRAVEL %
Fragments

Total
available
water SMU_EU_T_TAWC SMU_EU_S_TAWC mm
content
from PTR

Total
available
water STU_EU_T_TAWC STU_EU_S_TAWC mm
content
from PTF

References - Porposed Citations

 Hiederer, R. 2013. Mapping Soil Properties for Europe - Spatial Representation of Soil
Database Attributes. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2013 –
47pp. – EUR26082EN Scientific and Technical Research series, ISSN 1831-9424,
doi:10.2788/94128
  Hiederer, R. 2013. Mapping Soil Typologies - Spatial Decision Support Applied to
European Soil Database. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2013
– 147pp. – EUR25932EN Scientific and Technical Research series, ISSN 1831-9424,
doi:10.2788/87286

Layer Properties
Common properties for the soil property layers are:

Idrisi raster
Format:
format

Reference
ETRS 89 LAEA
system:

Rows: 5900

Columns: 4600

Min. X 1500000.0

Max. X 7400000.0

Min. Y 900000.0

Max. Y 5500000.0

Resolution: 1000.0

Reference unit: meter

Comments - Notes on to use of soil property layers

Comments on to use of soil property layers from spatially allocating soil typological units (STU)
of the European Soil Database (ESDB):

 Spatial layers on key soil properties for the topsoil and subsoil with pan-European
coverage are derived from the spatial allocation of STUs. STUs are only allocated to 1km
grid cells for those areas where suitable data exist to perform a multi-criteria evaluation
and land allocation. In other areas the properties of the dominant STUs are mapped. The
area where STUs are allocated is provided as a binary layer.

 The layers of soil properties of STUs are intended to facilitate modelling requirements by
making the complete range of data for a soil mapping unit (SMU) available in a single
layer. The procedure used to spatially allocate STU properties to 1km grid cells does not
estimate the property of that grid cell, but is the likely distribution of all STUs of a soil
mapping unit (SMU) within the spatial and thematic limits of that unit. Users should be
aware that the correlation between the soil properties of a grid location with point data
from ground surveys may be very low.
  The final result of the modelling activity should be aggregated to SMUs or another larger
mapping unit. It is generally not recommended to aggregate soil properties to larger
spatial units by averaging the property values first and then using the average values as
input for models.

Special note for depth:

 The depth layer included in the data set is the "depth to obstacles to roots" derived from
the ESDB depth classes recorded in the field [ROO.ST_SGDBE]. For organic soils in
Sweden the field contains only code 4 (Obstacle to roots between 20 and 40 cm depth).
The depth value for this class is set to 30cm. As a consequence, the subsoil layers for
organi9c carbon and bulk density only contain mineral soils.

 The layer is not suitable to calculate soil organic carbon density other than the topsoil. To
compute this parameter the required soil properties (depth, organic carbon content, bulk
density and gravel content) should be available for the depth of the soil.

Special note for peat:

 The soil texture data contains texture values as provided by the Harmonized World Soil
Database (HWSD) V.1.2.1. The HWSD provides texture values also for most typological
units classified as peat.

 In the ESDB pedo-transfer rule (PTR) 22 is used to identify peat. The conditions defining
the PTR are purely based on the soil classification name (taxonomy). Data of organic
carbon content of the HWSD do not fully correspond to the results of using PTR 22. For
example, Histo-Humic Gleysol (Ghh) is classified as peat by PTR 22, but classifying the
soil texture and organic carbon content data of the HWSD does not necessarily provide
the same class.

 To identify areas of peat in this data set the peat class (Class 8) in the layer on texture
classes should be used, which is consistent with the texture and organic carbon layer data.
The classification of peat is done on the basis of the soil clay and organic carbon content
as found in the SGDBE of the ESDB. In case a model uses soil texture information
separately from peat it is recommended to give priority to the peat areas identified in the
data layer of classified soil texture