The need for soil data has largely increased worldwide given the growing general concern about the maintenance and recovery of ecosystem resources and services. The development of digital soil mapping (DSM) is often seen as a means for answering this demand. In France, the national soil mapping strategy has been defined in the early 1990s within the Soil Inventory, Management and Conservation Programme (IGCS) and based on conventional soil mapping approaches. Now, small-scale soil map coverage of France has been almost achieved, soil data needs have evolved and DSM approaches have matured. The question therefore arises of what should be the future soil mapping strategy in France so as to foster soil mapping, better answer end-users needs and raise societal concern about soils. To answer this issue, we present in this paper a prospective analysis of the French national soil mapping strategy, which included i) a survey of the needs and difficulties expressed by producers, managers and users of soil data and ii) a foresight study of potential future scenarios for the development of soil mapping that takes advantage of DSM approaches. The survey indicated that soil information needs are high in terms of soil attributes, spatial resolution and accuracy and go beyond the data and maps presently available for France. The survey also showed that DSM methods remain little known outside the academic sector. The foresight study led to two main outputs. The first is to propose two complementary spatial sampling strategies for new data acquisition: i) upgrading the density of observed soil profiles to homogenize the accuracy of 1:250,000 soil maps for France and ii) improving the knowledge of local soil distribution patterns in the French regions by developing detailed mapping of reference areas, representative of the local soil patterns. The second output is a set of four possible scenarios for the development of soil mapping that differ according to the expected level of concern about soils that may exist in France in the future. The comparison of the scenarios led to several recommendations for favouring soil mapping, acquisition of new soil data and dissemination of soil knowledge. The recommendations include awareness raising about soil mapping and its potential for answering many environmental challenges, capacity building of soil surveyors and soil data users for DSM approaches, and improved quality assessment of soil maps to guide users and stimulate new investments of map producers. This certainly involves renewed public support before market development of soil mapping activities can take place and become the main support for soil mapping in France.

鉴于对生态系统资源和服务的维护和恢复的普遍关注日益增加，全球对土壤数据的需求已大大增加。数字土壤测绘（DSM）的开发通常被视为满足这一需求的一种手段。在法国，国家土壤测绘策略是在1990年代初在土壤清单，管理和保护计划（IGCS）中定义的，并基于常规土壤测绘方法。现在，法国的小规模土壤地图覆盖率已接近实现，土壤数据需求已经发展，DSM方法已经成熟。因此，问题在于法国未来的土壤测绘策略应该是什么，以促进土壤测绘，更好地满足最终用户的需求并引起社会对土壤的关注。为了回答这个问题，我们在本文中对法国国家土壤测绘策略进行了前瞻性分析，其中包括：i）对土壤数据的生产者，管理者和用户所表达的需求和困难进行的调查，以及ii）对发展的未来可能情景的前瞻性研究DSM方法的土壤制图方法。调查表明，在土壤属性，空间分辨率和准确性方面，土壤信息需求很高，并且超出了法国目前可用的数据和地图。调查还表明，DSM方法在学术界以外仍然鲜为人知。前瞻性研究产生了两个主要成果。第一种是为获取新数据提出两种互补的空间采样策略：i）提升观测到的土壤剖面的密度，以均化1：250的精度，000张法国的土壤图，以及ii）通过开发代表当地土壤模式的参考区域的详细地图，提高法国地区当地土壤分布模式的知识。第二个输出是一组四种可能的土壤绘图开发方案，这些方案根据对法国将来可能存在的土壤的预期关注程度而有所不同。通过对情景的比较得出了一些建议，以利于土壤测绘，获取新的土壤数据和传播土壤知识。这些建议包括：提高对土壤测绘的认识及其在应对许多环境挑战方面的潜力，土壤测量师和DSM方法的土壤数据用户的能力建设，改进了土壤地图的质量评估，以指导用户并刺激地图生产者的新投资。当然，这需要在获得土壤测绘活动的市场发展之前重新获得公众支持，并成为法国土壤测绘的主要支持。