Land assessment maps of Denmark based on the Danish Soil Classification's data bases and former trial land assessments

During the last decade the establishment of a new Danish land assessment system has been debated. One of the strongest arguments in support of this idea was that such a mapping system at a farm level would make it possible to allot financial support to the farmers in a more correct way, e.g. farmers with good soils should be paid better than farmers on poor soils if land was ordered to lie fallow due to political reasons. A nationwide land assessment on a farm level is, however, very time consuming and expensive to carry out so until now it has been rejected. Meanwhile, existing maps from the Danish Soil Classification may be transformed to land assessment maps when combined with the nation-wide soil profile database or by using the test land assessments made by the 1949 Land Assessment Commission. By these approaches land assessment maps can be elaborated for use at national, county or municipal levels.