Creation and Application of Utilizing and Managing Soil Information System in Red Soil Region. A Case Study

To establish a soil resources information system for sitespecific management is essential for rational development and utilization of widespread red soil resources in southern China. Taking Zhejiang province as an example, the conceptual design of UMSIS (utilizing and managing soil information system) at province, county, and farm scales was made for multipurpose application. UMSIS consists of soil resource database and three modelbases of evaluation, planning, and consultation. It also provides digitize, image processing, cartographic tools, and spatial analysis function. At present, the experimental UMSIS of Zhejiang province, Quzhou city and Longyou county was created using ARC/INFO and applied into many works, such as soil resources classification, soil suitability assessment, soil and water conservation, agricultural developing zones etc. Now the testing and verification of the system is nearly completed. In addition, the result shows the integration of commercial GIS software and applying model is still effective method of secondary development of GIS system.