BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a high-resolution digital soil atlas for the whole country, which will play an important role in arable land conservation, pollution control and environmental quality assessment.

The research led by the Agricultural Resource and Regional Planning Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology has combined the soil information data investigated and collected since the 1980s.

The digital soil data can accurately reflect the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of soil quality and the changing trend of soil and environmental quality, which is of great importance to policy-making on soil resource utilization and environmental management, said Zhang Weili, the leading researcher of the project.

However, the huge project to integrate and digitalize the survey data from different sources covering a large area has faced a series of scientific and technical difficulties.

The research team has utilized big data, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction technologies in constructing the digital soil database.

The atlas, including various soil features with a span of 40 years, is the most complete and precise scientific record of soil resources and quality in China, said Zhang.