Soil map of Lower Saxony 1: 50 000 — Soil landscapes

Soil landscapes are supra-regional soil units that characterise the soils only very generally (e.g. because coastal holocene or the loess and sand loess landscapes). The soil landscapes are characterised by common, mostly geological criteria; these are mainly derived from geogenesis and substrates (dominance of certain substrate-dependent soil types, e.g. loose soils), but must be derived from the water conditions (predominance of groundwater soils, e.g. in floodplains and lowlands) or relief (dominance of certain relief forms, e.g. resin). Often there is also a connection to the climate (increased rainfall leads to an increased proportion of water reservoirs). Since there are close interrelationships between soil landscapes and large geological units, their boundaries can be defined according to geological maps. Due to the very small-scale representation, the demarcation is usually associated with a generalisation.