The release of the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) was announced by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and NASA on June 29, 2009. The GDEM is distributed as 1 x 1 degree tiles, and has a spatial resolution of 30 m (i.e. equivalent to Landsat TM and ETM+). The AfSIS team is currently compiling the GDEM for the African continent, and will be running analysis and quality checks on this during the course of the next few weeks.

GlobalSoilMap.net is a new global project that aims to make a new digital soil map. Alex McBratney from the University of Sydney in Australia enthuses about the new map, “The global digital soil map will use advances in technologies including remote sensing, data mining and spatial databases, and our improved scientific understanding of soil, for accurate prediction and sampling of soil properties.

Africa:
Africa South of the Sahara (ITC Compendium of On-line Soil Survey Information)

Global:
ISRIC - World Soil Information Global Datasets (ITC Compendium)

Regional: