Influence of legacy soil map accuracy on soil map updating with data mining methods

•Effectively updating conventional soil maps was affected by the legacy soil map accuracy.•Updating soil maps could be achieved when the source soil map accuracies ranged from 35% to 75%.•Inclusion error and boundary displacement error of conventional maps were simulated to estimate legacy soil map influences.•Training sample selection methods and data mining models were not capable of overcome the limitations of updating soil maps.