Download High-Resolution Soil Data Worldwide with SoilGrids

Soil data is essential for agriculture, environmental research, land management, and GIS projects. SoilGrids, developed by ISRIC – World Soil Information, provides high-resolution, open-access soil information worldwide. Before downloading data, it is important to understand the types of soil layers available in SoilGrids.

29 Soil Types Available on SoilGrids

Here is a list of the main soil types and their English names as provided by SoilGrids:

Weakly fertile acidic clay soils – Alisols
Light volcanic soils – Andosols
Sandy soils – Arenosols
Calcareous magnesium-rich soils – Calcisols
Young poorly developed soils – Cambisols
Black soils – Chernozems
Cold permafrost soils – Cryosols
Silica-rich hard soils – Durisols
Poorly fertile red soils – Ferralsols
Alluvial silty soils – Fluvisols
Water-saturated wetland soils – Gleysols
Gypsum-rich soils – Gypsisols
Organic humus-rich soils – Histosols
Dry brown soils – Kastanozems
Weakly developed soils due to erosion – Leptosols
Washed weakly fertile soils – Lixisols
High-fertility washed clay soils – Luvisols
High-fertility mineral-rich soils – Nitisols
Organic-rich soils – Phaeozems
Flat soils – Planosols
Hard iron-rich soils – Plintosols
Acidic grey soils – Podzols
Weakly developed soils – Regosols
Salt-rich soils – Solonchaks
Sodium-rich saline soils – Solonetz
Waterlogged soils – Stagnosols
Acidic organic-rich soils – Umbrisols
Clay-rich shrinking soils – Vertisols

These soil types cover a wide variety of climates, terrains, and fertility levels, giving researchers and practitioners a comprehensive view of global soil characteristics.

How to Download Soil Data from SoilGrids

After understanding the soil types, you can download the data for your projects:

Visit the SoilGrids website: https://soilgrids.org
Go to the Download section.
Select the soil property (organic carbon, pH, texture, etc.) and depth layer (0–5 cm, 5–15 cm, etc.).
Choose your preferred output format (GeoTIFF, NetCDF, etc.).
Click Download and save the file to your computer.

Using SoilGrids Data

Import the downloaded layers into GIS software such as QGIS, ArcGIS, or Google Earth Engine.
SoilGrids provides data at 250m resolution, suitable for local, regional, and global studies.
Combine multiple soil properties to analyze soil fertility, suitability for crops, erosion risk, or carbon storage potential.