The Soil Regolith Stability classification is used in the assessment of soil water erosion and water pollution hazards. It is currently in use as part of the EPA 1998/99 Pollution Control Licences within state forests. This map identifies soil regolith stability classes using linework and soil information from published soil landscape mapping and reconnaissance soil landscapes of Northern and Southern Comprehensive Regional Assessment (CRA) mapping projects.
Each soil landscape unit on the coverage has been allocated a regolith stability classification (soil erodibility), comprising of four classes:

• class R1 – High coherence soils with low sediment delivery potential
• class R2 – Low coherence soils (when wet) with low sediment delivery potential
• class R3 – High coherence soils with high sediment delivery potential
• class R4 – Low coherence soils (when wet)

A regolith stability classification consists of a dominant class and up to three sub-dominant classes (if necessary), for example, R1(R3,R4), where R1 is the dominant regolith stability class and (R3 & R4) are the sub-dominant regolith stability classes.

Online Maps: This dataset can be viewed using eSPADE (NSW’s soil spatial viewer), which contains a suite of soil and landscape information including soil profile data. Many of these datasets have hot-linked soil reports. An alternative viewer is the SEED Map; an ideal way to see what other natural resources datasets (e.g. vegetation) are available for this map area.

Reference: Murphy, C.L., Fogarty, P.J. and Ryan P.J. 1998, Soil Regolith Stability Classification for State Forests in Eastern New South Wales, Technical Report No. 41, Department of Land and Water Conservation.