A possible way of enhancing the accessibility of data relating
to soil chemical properties such as soil pH scale for
addressing the challenges of erosion hazard in Bayelsa state,
Nigeria is presented in this paper. Besides flooding and rapid
population growth along with climate change concerns, the
environmental and socio-economic impacts of erosion hazard
in Bayelsa are critical issues. The economic significance of
this part of Nigeria highlighted by extensive oil exploration
suggests the need to focus attention towards sustainable
development. Against this background, it is important to
explore the prospects of maps which delineate soil chemical
properties particularly soil pH scale. How this map is derived
for Bayelsa is the focus this study. Sheets 7 and 8 of hardcopy
soil map of Nigeria each at a scale of 1:650,000 were scanned
and spatially referenced to WGS 1984 coordinate system. In a
GIS, vector form of these maps representing Bayelsa was
created and linked to soil aspatial data of the area obtained
from Federal Department of Agricultural Land Resources
(FDALR). Then by spatial analysis of the resulting vector
map, the digital soil pH scale map for the area was derived.
The result of the study showed a pH scale that ranges from
4.5 to 7.3 for eleven soil mapping units including 1b, 1c, 7c,
etc., Environmentalists, large-scale farmers,
telecommunications operators and erosion hazards managers
among other users of soil will find this result vital to reducing
cost and time implications of collecting data relating to soil
chemical properties.