Dewitte O. auteur aut IRD Jones A. auteur aut IRD Spaargaren O. auteur aut IRD Breuning-Madsen H. auteur aut IRD Brossard Michel auteur aut IRD Dampha A. auteur aut IRD Deckers J. auteur aut IRD Gallali T. auteur aut IRD Hallett S. auteur aut IRD Jones R. auteur aut IRD Kilasara M. auteur aut IRD Le Roux P. auteur aut IRD Micheli E. auteur aut IRD Montanarella L. auteur aut IRD Thiombiano L. auteur aut IRD Van Ranst E. auteur aut IRD Yemefack M. auteur aut IRD Zougmore R. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access In the context of major global environmental challenges such as food security, climate change, fresh water scarcity and biodiversity loss, the protection and the sustainable management of soil resources in Africa are of paramount importance. To raise the awareness of the general public, stakeholders, policy makers and the science community to the importance of soil in Africa, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has produced the Soil Atlas of Africa. To that end, a new harmonised soil map at the continental scale has been produced. The steps of the construction of the new area-class map are presented, the basic information being derived from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). We show how the original data were updated and modified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources classification system. The corrections concerned boundary issues, areas with no information, soil patterns, river and drainage networks, and dynamic features such as sand dunes, water bodies and coastlines. In comparison to the initial map derived from HWSD, the new map represents a correction of 13% of the soil data for the continent. The map is available for downloading. specialized Soil map Harmonisation Soil classification Soil Atlas of Africa Google Earth AFRIQUE 068 010 211 138-153 2013 0016-7061 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010061241 10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.07.007 0016-7061 [F B010061241] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010061241 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2013/11/010061241.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2013-12-02 2017-08-23 fdi:010061241 fre