The British Virgin Islands (BVI) are prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, storm surges, flooding and landslides, as well as droughts and heatwaves. The BVI government has identified soil maps as a priority for environmental management, i.e. construction, waste disposal, water resources, degraded land and biodiversity conservation – as well as for modelling potential impacts from climate change.

Archipelagos are relatively expensive to map, given the time needed to visit and survey many individual islands, as well as associated logistical challenges and travel costs. Remote sensing and GIS can greatly reduce those survey costs, providing standardised approaches to mapping each island.

Elevation data from aerial laser scanning (LiDAR) has been used to map the BVI terrain. The main BVI rock types have been classified into wet or dry subtypes and then further subdivided by geomorphological position: valley floor, hillside, or ridge/plateau – that map has been used to select sample sites for the soil survey.

Using GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, the DEM-derived geomorphometric data (e.g. slope steepness, landform types) have been integrated with geological map data, PlanetScope imagery highlighting areas of post-hurricane soil erosion, and meteorological data, to produce a map showing BVI geodiversity – enabling a useful comparison with the BVI’s biodiversity ‘hotspots’.

The BVI Soil GIS and associated geospatial datasets will be used to assess potential hazards from different types of land use, supporting risk assessment (i.e., geohazard, vulnerability and exposure) for planning reviews of new developments, as well as identifying fertile soils for cultivation, highlighting soils that need careful management because of slope instability, erosion or degradation.