Acid Sulfate Soils Atlas

The Atlas of Australian Acid Sulfate Soils (AAASS) was compiled to provide a consistent national collation of Australia's acid sulfate soils.

The AAASS is housed within the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS) and is accessible to anybody with an internet connection (links below). The AAASS represents the most extensive depiction of ASS across the nation to date.

The Atlas of Australian Acid Sulfate Soils (AAASS)

The web-based hazard assessment tool (link above) provides information about the distribution and properties of both coastal and inland acid sulfate soils across Australia.

Every polygon or mapping unit is attributed with information pertaining to:
(i) classes of “probability of occurrence”,
(ii) levels of confidence relating to the quality of the data source, and
(iii) additional descriptors such as desiccation cracks.

A simplified “Soil Identification Key” was developed to identify and classify the various types and subtypes of acid sulfate soils (Fitzpatrick, 2013) in accordance with the legend for the AAASS.

  •  Complementing the AAASS is the database (see link above), which serves as a repository of available ASS investigations undertaken to date. The ASS database contains details on soil morphology, chemistry, site specific evaluations of ASS affected areas, including reports (if available) in PDF format.
  • Copies or extracts of the AAASS are regularly sought by several government agencies, engineering firms and environmental consultants. But also farmers and land managers with internet access can readily see what the indicative ASS assessment of their area is.
  • Knowledge of likely or potential ASS risks in a given area of interest will enable farmers and land managers to avoid or manage for problems associated with the disturbance of sulfidic materials in ASS. As ASS issues feature more and more, especially with: (i) ASS policy frameworks across Australia and (ii) media, the AAASS will become more and more the first port of call for ASS information.
  • The ongoing enhancement of the AAASS within ASRIS is the powerful capacity to view site locations and view PDF files containing site data.

In Australia, ASS occupy an estimated 215,000 km2 (Fitzpatrick et al. 2008) of which:

  • 58,000 km2 is coastal Acid Sulfate Soils
  • 157,000 km2 is inland Acid Sulfate Soils
  • 41,000 km2 in the coastal zone, are exposed at some point during the tidal cycle, with the remaining 17,000 km2 being permanently subaqueous.
  • 126 km2 of coastal ASS with sulfuric material have been identified, however this is a significant underestimate and will be modified with future work

The Atlas can accommodate rapid temporal changes as occurred with declining water levels in the Murray-Darling Basin during the Millennium drought where hypersulfidic material containing pyrite (pre-drought) oxidised to form sulfuric acid (sulfuric material with pH < 4) (see Fitzpatrick et al. 2009; 2010a,b).

The Atlas project was developed under the auspices of the National Committee for Acid Sulfate Soils (NatCASS) with assistance from staff in all states throughout Australia..

The Atlas was developed to provide information about the distribution of ASS across Australia. The information includes a national map of available ASS mapping and ASS qualification inferred from surrogate datasets - uploaded as a web-served GIS at the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS - see links above). ASS mapping is classified with a nationally consistent legend that includes risk assessment criteria and correlations between Australian and International Soil Classification Systems.

The AAASS is a constantly evolving national map of available ASS mapping.

The AAASS is a tool to:

  • Provide knowledge of ASS distribution via ASRIS.
  • Provide detailed ASS data through 30 priority case studies at a range of regions, areas and sites across Australia, which is critical to successful:
  • nationally consistent policy development,
  • adoption of land and water management options.
  • support and greatly enhance implementation of National Guidelines and Strategies, which aim to avoid disturbance of all types of ASS.

For further information on the AAASS see Fitzpatrick et al. (2011)

Fitzpatrick Rob., Powell, Bernie, Marvanek, Steve., 2011. Atlas of Australian Acid Sulphate Soils. v2. CSIRO. Data Collection. http://doi.org/10.4225/08/512E79A0BC589

Other references

Fitzpatrick, R.W., Powell, B., Marvanek, S., 2008. Atlas of Australian acid sulfate soils. In: R. W. Fitzpatrick and P. Shand (Eds.), Inland acid sulfate soil systems across Australia. CRC LEME Open File Report No. 249. CRC LEME, Perth, Australia. p. 75-89.

Fitzpatrick, R.W., Shand, P., Merry, R.H., 2009. Acid sulfate soils. In: Jennings, J.T. (Ed.), Natural History of the Riverland and Murraylands. Royal Society of South Australia (Inc.), Adelaide, South Australia, pp. 65–111.

Fitzpatrick, R.W., Grealish, G., Chappell, A., Marvanek, S., Shand, P. 2010a.  Spatial variability of subaqueous and terrestrial acid sulfate soils and their properties, for the Lower Lakes, South Australia. CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture National Research Flagship Client Report R-689-1-15 122 pp. https://doi.org/10.4225/08/5852da2932c66

Fitzpatrick Rob, Marvanek Steve, Powell Bernie, Grealish Gerard., 2010b.  Atlas of Australian Acid Sulfate Soils: Recent developments and future priorities. In: RJ Gilkes and N Prakongkep (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th World Congress of Soil Science; Soil Solutions for a Changing World; ISBN 987-0-646-53783-2; Published on DVD; http//www.iuss.org; Symposium WG 3.1 Processes in acid sulfate soil materials; 2010 Aug 1–6, Brisbane, Australia; IUSS; 2010, pp 24-27.

Fitzpatrick, R.W., 2013. Demands on soil classification and soil survey strategies: Special-purpose soil classification systems for local practical use. In: Shahid, S. A., Taha, F. K., Abdelfattah, M. A. (Eds.), Developments in soil classification, land use planning and policy implications. Springer, Netherlands, pp. 51-83.