Application of GIS in General Soil Mapping of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a densely populated country where food crisis is one of the major issues where proper soil mapping is lacking till now. The purpose of this study is to prepare soil mapping of Bangladesh including different soil factors like pH, salinity, nutrients, texture, porosity, toxicity etc., along with general soil types and land availability through application of Geographical Information System (GIS). Q-GIS software and secondary data are used in this study. In present study, it was found that 12 types of soil texture were present in all around of Bangladesh and the maximum percentage of soil porosity values varied from 20% to 70%. A medium range of soil organic matter and strongly acidic soil was found all around the Bangladesh. It was found that the southern part of Bangladesh had slightly saline to highly saline soil. The major part of Bangladesh had medium high land which is very much preferable to agriculture. In Bangladesh, three categories of land such as highland, medium highland and low land cover 29%, 35% and 21% of total land, respectively. Agriculture land covers 9.5 million hectares in Bangladesh. The shifting rate based on agricultural use had been reported to be about 1% per year. At present, the amount of forest land covers 9.84% of total land of our country but 1976 it was 12.11%. Mangrove is now at 4.07% of total land mass of our country. In generally, 20 types of soils were found all around the country. Mapping of soil types described these 20 general soil types under 5 main categories and these are calcareous soil, non-calcareous soil, terrace soil, gray soil, peat and hill soils. This study will be helpful for the cultivator to cultivate appropriate crops in appropriate places after exploration at a glance.