Soil topography for the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative, British Columbia, Canada

The Soil Landscapes of Canada are a series of GIS coverages that show the major characteristics of soil and land for the whole country. SLCs were compiled at a scale of 1:1 million, and information is organized according to a uniform national set of soil and landscape criteria based on permanent natural attributes. The SLCs are based on existing soil survey maps which have been recompiled at 1:1 million scale. Each area (or polygon) on the map is described by a standard set of attributes. The full array of attributes that describe a distinct type of soil and its associated landscape, such as surface form, slope, water table depth, permafrost and lakes, is called a soil landscape. SLC polygons may contain one or more distinct soil landscape components and may also contain small but highly contrasting inclusion components. The location of these components within the polygon is not defined.
SLCs were originally conceived as a standardized database consisting of major attributes important to plant growth, land management, and soil degradation. These data have since turned out to be a useful framework to support other databases, including Environment Canada's Ecological Land Classification System.