Netherlands Journal of Geosciences The use of geological, geomorphological and soil mapping products in palaeolandscape www.cambridge.org/njg reconstructions for the Netherlands Harm Jan Pierik1 and Kim M. Cohen1,2 Review 1Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands and 2Deltares, Department of Applied Geology and Geophysics, P.O. Box 85.467, 3508 AL Utrecht, Cite this article: Pierik HJ and Cohen KM. The the Netherlands use of geological, geomorphological and soil mapping products in palaeolandscape reconstructions for the Netherlands. Abstract Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, Volume 99, e9. https://doi.org/10.1017/njg.2020.8 Geological, geomorphological and soil maps provide important information on the substrate as well as on the past and present physical landscape. For the intensely studied Netherlands coastal Received: 9 July 2019 plain and Rhine–Meuse delta, many such map datasets have been compiled over the last Revised: 10 April 2020 two centuries. These mapping materials comprise older and younger legacy datasets, often Accepted: 15 April 2020 fragmented over regions. They have been compiled within various research traditions and Keywords: by various parties, involving geologists, soil scientists, geomorphologists and landscape archae- geological mapping; palaeogeography; legacy ologists. The maps and datasets summarise overwhelming amounts of underlying data maps; Netherlands accumulated over the last few centuries, and are therefore valuable for reconstructing past Author for correspondence: landscapes. Harm Jan Pierik, Email: [email protected] Digital-infrastructure developments have enhanced possibilities for recombining existing and new data over the last few decades, e.g. through GIS solutions such as palaeogeographical base maps, from which multiple derived map products can be generated. Integration of the- matic information from various source maps and underlying data is needed to use the accu- mulated data diversity to its full potential and to answer applied and fundamental scientific questions. Using diverse information to compile or update maps, however, requires awareness of legacy surveying strategies and the state of knowledge at the time the original data and maps were produced. This paper reviews the soil, geological and geomorphological mapping tradi- tions. We evaluate their products, underlying data and the reasoning behind their compilation, focusing on their use in conventional and digital palaeogeographical mapping. This helps get the most out of large quantities of legacy and modern data, a major challenge for surface and substrate digital mapping in the big-data era. Introduction Palaeogeographical maps (series of maps showing the landscape state for distinct time steps) are an effective way to communicate developed insights on landscape evolution (Pons et al., 1963;Zagwijn,1986; Berendsen & Stouthamer, 2001;Vos,2015a; Pierik et al., 2016). Palaeogeographical maps have been compiled by various institutes and individuals, often working in parallel over the last few decades (Berendsen, 2007; Van der Meulen et al., 2013). These reconstructions show integrated knowledge from underlying observational data from many local and regional studies. Examples of such input studies are the series of soil maps, geo- morphological maps and geological maps on scale 1:50,000 (e.g. Oele et al., 1983) as well as local to regional maps in professional reports, articles and academic theses (e.g. Berendsen, 1982; Weerts et al., 2005; Cohen et al., 2014a,b; Vos, 2015a). These datasets not only carry important information on the substrate, but also on the present and past physical landscape. Keeping maps and datasets up to date over time is not a trivial matter. The amounts of under- lying data (e.g. borehole logs, seismics, cone penetration tests (CPTs)) is ever increasing as more © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge of it is digitised and shared in open access databases, and new data campaigns are being University Press. This is an Open Access article, performed. This is especially apparent in the Dutch delta, where increasing data quantities pose distributed under the terms of the Creative challenges for synchronising and integrating information into digital public datasets and new Commons Attribution licence (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which national maps (Weerts et al., 2005; Berendsen et al., 2007;VanderMeulenetal.,2013;Maljers permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and et al., 2015;Cohenetal.,2017). In order to make this effective, it is important to develop and docu- reproduction in any medium, provided the ment transparent and generic workflows for combining existing map datasets and new data. original work is properly cited. Applications that rely on soil or substrate, such as landscape archaeology, construction or groundwater quality assessment, benefit from up-to-date synthesised datasets in map format as a starting point, because these summarise vast amounts of underlying data. In addition, large amounts of older analogue source data, on which they have been based, are not always included in digital datasets. This data often has either never been digitised or is simply lost. Furthermore, since Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 26 Sep 2021 at 00:52:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/njg.2020.8 2 Harm Jan Pierik and Kim M. Cohen A Systemac data mining Digitalisaon B and map producon 1950 2000 Fig 4 Soil mapping tradions Pedogenec maps Pedology based 1:50k map series Local detailed updates Stascs-based Geological mapping tradions Convenonal 1:50k map series Digital geological Fig 6 models Palaeogeographical mapping tradions Fig 5 Convenonal regional maps Naonal Naonal Naonal GIS-generated Fig 3 Fig 8 Geomorphological mapping tradions 1:50k map series LiDAR-based Regional Legend coastal plain Rhine-Meuse delta Pleistocene uplands Fig. 1. (A) Timeline of the main mapping traditions in the Netherlands (black bars) and their products (grey produced on paper, grey-blue: digitised analogue maps; blue digitally produced). (B) Landscape subdivision with locations of selected example areas. Soil map Geomorphological map Geological map GeoTOP voxel model 1:50,000 1:50,000 1:50,000 100x100x0.5m digital* map sheet compendium V VV V V X V XX *) Digital version of the Geological map 1:50,000 for internal use Geological Survey of the Netherlands Fig. 2. Spatial extent of four national mapping programmes. the legacy datasets were published, many areas have been levelled or insights. The different themes and primary goals of the maps overbuilt, destroying the shallow surface or making the areas dif- (e.g. pedological, geological or geomorphological; Fig. 1A), for ficult to access for new field campaigns. example, mean that the same featuresbetweenvariousmaps Mapping programmes over the 20th century have resulted in show different boundaries or conflicting genetic interpretations. a large coverage of soil surveying and geological surveying map Additionally, the older maps were produced during periods when series (Figs. 1 and 2). Many map datasets have been originally the state of knowledge was less well developed, making it in some cases created and maintained for applied and generic use, e.g. plan- hard to derive correct reinterpretations. This means that the intake ning and design, construction, groundwater flow assessment and processing of such datasets into any new digital map datasets and scientific investigation. In parallel, academic and applied requires awareness of the scope and research strategy of the original research have yielded a wealth of additional geological data study, against a background of general knowledge at the time. and insights. Over the last few decades these datasets have been Over the last few decades, data management and GIS digitally produced, while older originally analogue maps have processing have become more efficient for automatisation and been digitised. These spatial datasets and underlying data, however, uniform treatment of diverse source data (Berendsen et al., 2007; vary in theme, scale, spatial coverage, observation density and resolu- Van der Meulen et al., 2013;Pieriketal.,2016). As data amounts grow tion.Itisthereforenotalwaysstraightforward to combine their and workflows become more powerful and efficient, it remains Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 26 Sep 2021 at 00:52:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/njg.2020.8 Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 3 Table 1. Relative importance of focus points within the mapping traditions; ‘þ’ and ‘−’ indicate relative importance of the theme relative to the other mapping programmes. For example, in the Ages column, ‘−’ means that age information was relatively less important, while ‘þ’ means it was important to assign the feature to a unit in the legend scheme. Inferences from Direct observations observations Scope/scale Surface Phasing of L = Local Period of Research tradition Institute morphology Facies Stratigraphy Genesis development Ages R = Regional publication Soil mapping (pedo-genetically STIBOKA þ þþ þ þþ þ/− þ/− L 1933–1966 based) Soil mapping (pedology-based) STIBOKA −/þ −/þ −/þ −/þ −/þ −/þ R 1966–1994 Conventional geological mapping GSN −−/þþþ