Earth:SCORPAN

Scorpan is a mnemonic for an empirical quantitative descriptions of relationships between soil and environmental factors with a view to using these as soil spatial prediction functions for the purpose of Digital soil mapping. It is an adaptation of Hans Jenny’s five factors not for explanation of soil formation, but for empirical descriptions of relationships between soil and other spatially referenced factors.

S = f(s, c,o,r,p,a,n), where

• S = soil classes or attributes (to be modeled)
• s = soil, other or previously measured properties of the soil at a point
• c = climate, climatic properties of the environment at a point
• o = organisms, including land cover and natural vegetation or fauna or human activity
• r = relief, topography, landscape attributes
• p = parent material, lithology
• a = age, the time factor
• n = spatial or geographic position

See also

• Digital soil mapping
• Clorpt
• Soil survey
• Pedometrics

Further reading

• "On digital soil mapping". Geoderma (Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam) 117 (1-2): 3–52. 1 November 2003. doi:10.1016/S0016-7061(03)00223-4.