Soil thickness is one of 18 attributes of soils chosen to underpin the land suitability assessment of the Southern Gulf Water Resource Assessment (SOGWRA) through the digital soil mapping process (DSM). This soil thickness raster data represents a modelled dataset of soil thickness presented as a positive number in meters eg a value of 1.12 shows the soil thickness is 1.12m deep and is derived from measured site data and environmental covariates. This data may underrepresent areas of soils deeper than 1.5m as the input data was mostly only recorded to a maximum of 1.5m where achievable being the extent of the hydraulic soil corer and the general agricultural soil depth. Soil thickness is a parameter used in land suitability assessment for plant edaphic requirements (root development and structural growth) and physical support and a component in other limitations including available water capacity (AWC). This raster data provides improved soil information used to underpin and identify opportunities and promote detailed investigation for a range of sustainable regional development options and was created within the ‘Land Suitability’ activity of the CSIRO SOGWRA. A companion dataset and statistics reflecting reliability of this data are also provided and can be found described in the lineage section of this metadata record. Processing information is supplied in ranger R scripts and attributes were modelled using a Random Forest approach. The DSM process is described in the CSIRO SOGWRA published report ‘Soils and land suitability for the Southern Gulf catchments’. A technical report from the CSIRO Southern Gulf Water Resource Assessment to the Government of Australia. The Southern Gulf Water Resource Assessment provides a comprehensive overview and integrated evaluation of the feasibility of aquaculture and agriculture development in the Southern Gulf catchments NT and Qld as well as the ecological, social and cultural (indigenous water values, rights and aspirations) impacts of development.
