Land Degradation Risk in Belize

Table of Contents



IDENTIFICATION_INFORMATION

Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Publication_Date: 20060405 Title: Land Degradation Risk in Belize Edition: 20060405 Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: Map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Green Hills, El Progresso, Cayo district, Belize Publisher: Bioidiverstiy and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Other_Citation_Details: Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.biodiversity.bz Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Description: Abstract: Dataset combines a total of 8 variables to assess the potential for land degradation in Belize. These variables include; Soil pH, Shallow depth, Soil Fertility, Fire Risk, Slope, Geology and Rainfall. Within these, the soil pH and slope weigh heaviest. In general, those areas with a high combined land degradation value should be considered unsuitable for development, particularly agricultural development. Purpose: To maka first assessment of the potential for soil degradation in Belize Supplemental_Information: Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1959 Ending_Date: 2004 Currentness_Reference: 20051106 Status: Progress: Planned Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed Spatial_Domain: Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: -89.2590 East_Bounding_Coordinate: -87.4572 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 18.4995 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 15.8827 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Theme_Keyword: Soil fertility Theme_Keyword: Land degradation Theme_Keyword: Slope Theme_Keyword: Fire Theme_Keyword: Drought Theme_Keyword: Leeching Theme_Keyword: Geology Theme_Keyword: pH Theme_Keyword: Acidity Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Place_Keyword: Belize Access_Constraints: None Use_Constraints: These data are only a first attempt to assess land degradation. User has to accepts data as is. Data can not be altered without permission from the publisher. Metadata need to accompany any form of distriubution. Author and publisher need to be acknowledged at all times. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Belize Tropical Forest Studies Contact_Person: Jan Meerman Contact_Position: Director Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: P.O. Box 208, City: Belmopan State_or_Province: Cayo District Postal_Code: N.A. Country: Belize Contact_Voice_Telephone: 501-820-4017 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: meerman@biological-diversity.info Hours_of_Service: Native_Data_Set_Environment: ArcView version 3.3 shapefile format e:\my documents\gis\layers_bze\landdegradation\land_degradation.shp Top

DATA_QUALITY_INFORMATION

Attribute_Accuracy: Attribute_Accuracy_Report: Attributes are derived from a number of sources. The quality of the current dataset assumes the accuracy of these sources. However, this accuracy can not be assertained or guaranteed. Logical_Consistency_Report: Completeness_Report: Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Vertical_Positional_Accuracy: Vertical_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Jan Meerman Publication_Date: 20051106 Title: Land Degradation Risk in Belize Edition: 20051106 Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Cayo district, Belize Publisher: Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Other_Citation_Details: Writght et al. 1959. Soils of Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Fire Risk map for Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Rainfall isihyet map of Belize King et al, 1992. GIS dataset belonging to: Land Resource Assessment of Northern Belize. National Resource Institute. Cornec, J. 2003. Geology map of Belize Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.biodiversity.bz Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Source_Scale_Denominator: Type_of_Source_Media: ArcView shapefiles Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1959 Ending_Date: 2004 Source_Currentness_Reference: Source_Citation_Abbreviation: Source_Contribution: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Jan Meerman Publication_Date: 20051106 Title: Land Degradation Risk in Belize Edition: 20051106 Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Cayo district, Belize Publisher: Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Other_Citation_Details: Writght et al. 1959. Soils of Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Fire Risk map for Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Rainfall isihyet map of Belize King et al, 1992. GIS dataset belonging to: Land Resource Assessment of Northern Belize. National Resource Institute. Cornec, J. 2003. Geology map of Belize Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.biodiversity.bz Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Source_Scale_Denominator: Type_of_Source_Media: ArcView shapefiles Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1959 Ending_Date: 2004 Source_Currentness_Reference: Source_Citation_Abbreviation: Source_Contribution: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Jan Meerman Publication_Date: 20051106 Title: Land Degradation Risk in Belize Edition: 20051106 Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Cayo district, Belize Publisher: Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Other_Citation_Details: Writght et al. 1959. Soils of Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Fire Risk map for Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Rainfall isihyet map of Belize King et al, 1992. GIS dataset belonging to: Land Resource Assessment of Northern Belize. National Resource Institute. Cornec, J. 2003. Geology map of Belize Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.biodiversity.bz Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Source_Scale_Denominator: Type_of_Source_Media: ArcView shapefiles Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1959 Ending_Date: 2004 Source_Currentness_Reference: Source_Citation_Abbreviation: Source_Contribution: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Jan Meerman Publication_Date: 20060405 Title: Land Degradation Risk in Belize Edition: 20060405 Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Green Hills, El Progresso, Cayo district, Belize Publisher: Biodiversity and Environmental Resource Data System for Belize Other_Citation_Details: Writght et al. 1959. Soils of Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Fire Risk map for Belize Meerman, J. C. 2004. Rainfall isihyet map of Belize King et al, 1992. GIS dataset belonging to: Land Resource Assessment of Northern Belize. National Resource Institute. Cornec, J. 2003. Geology map of Belize Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.biodiversity.bz Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Source_Scale_Denominator: Type_of_Source_Media: ArcView shapefiles Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: 1959 Ending_Date: 2004 Source_Currentness_Reference: Source_Citation_Abbreviation: Source_Contribution: Process_Step: Process_Description: Wright et al. 1959. Soils map provided three base layers: 1) Soil pH: All acidic soils were given a value of 2 2) Soil depth: All skeletal soils were given a value of 1 3) Soil fertility: All soils with a fertility attribute "low" or "very low" were given a value of 1 4) Meerman, J. C. 2004. Fire risk: All areas within a total fire-risk class of 7 and higher were given a value of 1. Note that Agricultural lands and "social fire risk" were excluded from the total fire risk class since these types of fire risk are not appropriate for the current purpose. 5) Meerman, J.C. 2004. Rainfall: All areas with a low annual rainfall (drought risk) of 60-100' were given a value of 1 6) Meerman, J.C. 2004. Rainfalll: All areas with a high annual rainfall (leeching of nutrients) of 140-180' were given a value of 1. 7) King et al 1992. Landsystems. All areas with slope classes 4 or higher (erosion risk) were given a value of 2. 8) Cornec: Geology. All areas with a creataceous/limestone geology (drought stress) were given a value of 1. Ultimately, all attribute values were added up to give a total land degradation risk value ranging potentially from 0-10 (no values higher than 7 were reached due to the fact that some of the attributes were mutually exclusive. While there is a risk for land degradation for all areas, only those areas with a value of 5 or higher should be considered at danger under the present conditions. April 5, 2006: In order to reduce file size, contribution data (used for calculation of total land degradation potential removed and equal value polygons merged. Otherwise no changes made. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: Process_Date: 20060405 Source_Produced_Citation_Abbreviation: Process_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Organization: Belize Tropical Forest Studies Contact_Person: Jan Meerman Contact_Position: Director Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: P.O. Box 208, City: Belmopan State_or_Province: Cayo District Postal_Code: N.A. Country: Belize Contact_Voice_Telephone: 501-820-4017 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: meerman@biological-diversity.info Hours_of_Service: Top

SPATIAL_DATA_ORGANIZATION_INFORMATION

Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Vector Point_and_Vector_Object_Information: SDTS_Terms_Description: SDTS_Point_and_Vector_Object_Type: GT-polygon composed of chains Point_and_Vector_Object_Count: 20616 Top

SPATIAL_REFERENCE_INFORMATION

Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Grid_Coordinate_System: Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator Universal_Transverse_Mercator: UTM_Zone_Number: 16 Transverse_Mercator: Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.999600 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -87.000000 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000 False_Easting: 500000.000000 False_Northing: 0.000000 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: Coordinate pair Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: Ordinate_Resolution: Planar_Distance_Units: Meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1927 Ellipsoid_Name: Clarke 1866 Semi-major_Axis: 6378206.4000000 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 294.98 Top

ENTITY_AND_ATTRIBUTE_INFORMATION

Detailed_Description: Entity_Type: Entity_Type_Label: newriver_bathymetry.dbf Entity_Type_Definition: Shapefile Attribute Table Entity_Type_Definition_Source: None Attribute: Attribute_Label: Area_Meter Attribute_Definition: Area of polygon Attribute_Definition_Source: Software generated Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Software computed Attribute: Attribute_Label: Perimeter_ Attribute_Definition: Perimeter of polygon Attribute_Definition_Source: Software generated Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Software computed Attribute: Attribute_Label: ID_ Attribute_Definition: Maximum depth in meters Attribute_Definition_Source: Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Numeric Field Attribute: Attribute_Label: Acres Attribute_Definition: Attribute_Definition_Source: Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Numeric Field Attribute: Attribute_Label: Hectares Attribute_Definition: Attribute_Definition_Source: Attribute_Domain_Values: Unrepresentable_Domain: Numeric Field Overview_Description: Entity_and_Attribute_Overview: Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: Top

DISTRIBUTION_INFORMATION

Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Belize Tropical Forest Studies Contact_Person: Jan Meerman Contact_Position: Director Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: P.O. Box 208, City: Belmopan State_or_Province: Cayo District Postal_Code: N.A. Country: Belize Contact_Voice_Telephone: 501-820-4017 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: meerman@biological-diversity.info Hours_of_Service: Resource_Description: Distribution_Liability: Top

METADATA_REFERENCE_INFORMATION

Metadata_Date: 20060405 Metadata_Review_Date: 20060405 Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Belize Tropical Forest Studies Contact_Person: Jan Meerman Contact_Position: Director Contact_Address: Address_Type: Mailing and physical address Address: P.O. Box 208, City: Belmopan State_or_Province: Cayo District Postal_Code: N.A. Country: Belize Contact_Voice_Telephone: 501-820-4017 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: meerman@biological-diversity.info Hours_of_Service: Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC CSDGM Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Top