Soil legacy data rescue via GlobalSoilMap and other international and national initiatives

Legacy soil data have been produced over 70 years in nearly all countries of the world. Unfortunately, data, information and knowledge are still currently fragmented and at risk of getting lost if they remain in a paper format. To process this legacy data into consistent, spatially explicit and continuous global soil information, data are being rescued and compiled into databases. Thousands of soil survey reports and maps have been scanned and made available online. The soil profile data reported by these data sources have been captured and compiled into databases. The total number of soil profiles rescued in the selected countries is about 800,000. Currently, data for 117, 000 profiles are compiled and harmonized according to GlobalSoilMap specifications in a world level database (WoSIS). The results presented at the country level are likely to be an underestimate. The majority of soil data is still not rescued and this effort should be pursued. The data have been used to produce soil property maps. We discuss the pro and cons of top-down and bottom-up approaches to produce such maps and we stress their complementarity. We give examples of success stories. The first global soil property maps using rescued data were produced by a top-down approach and were released at a limited resolution of 1km in 2014, followed by an update at a resolution of 250m in 2017. By the end of 2020, we aim to deliver the first worldwide product that fully meets the GlobalSoilMap specifications.

ARROUAYS Dominique;  LEENARS Johan;  RICHER-DE-FORGES Anne;  ADHIKARI Koushik;  BALLABIO Cristiano;  GREVE Morgens;  GRUNDY Mike;  GUERRERO Eliseo;  HEMPEL Jon;  HENGL Tomislav;  HEUVELINK Gerard;  BATJES Niels;  CARVALHO Eloi;  HARTEMINK Alfred E.;  HEWITT Alan;  HONG Suk Young;  KRASILNIKOV Pavel;  LAGACHERIE Philippe;  LELYK G.;  LIBOHOVA Zamir;  LILLY Allan;  MCKENZIE Neil J.;  MCBRATNEY Alex;  VASQUEZ Gustavo M.;  MULDER Vera Letitia;  MINASNY Budiman;  MONTANARELLA Luca;  ODEH I.O.A.;  PADARIAN Jose;  POGGIO Laura;  ROUDIER Pierre;  SABY Nicholas P A;  SAVIN I.;  SEARLE Ross;  STOLBOVOY Vladimir;  THOMPSON James;  SMITH Scott;  SULAEMAN Yigi;  VINTILA Ruxandra;  VISCARRA ROSSEL Raphael;  WILSON Peter;  ZHANG Ganling;  SWERTS Martine;  OORTS Katrien;  KARKLINS Aldis;  FENG Liu;  IBELLES NAVARRO Alexandro R.;  LEVIN Arkadiy;  LAKTIONOVA Tetiana;  DELL‘ACQUA Martin;  SUVANNANG Nopmanee;  RUAM Waew;  PRASAD Jagdish;  PATIL Nitin;  HUSNJAK Stjepan;  PÁSZTOR László;  OKX Joop;  HALLETT Stephen H.;  KEAY Caroline A.;  FAREWELL Timothy;  LILJA Hari;  JUILLERET Jérôme;  MARX Simone;  TAKATA Yusuke;  KAZUYUKI Yagi;  MANSUY Nicolas;  PANAGOS Panagiotis;  VAN LIEDEKERKE Marc;  SKALSKY R;  SOBOCKA J.;  KOBZA Josef;  EFTEKHARI Kamran;  ALAVIPANAH Seyed Kacem;  MOUSSADEK Rachid;  BADRAOUI M.;  DA SILVA Mayesse;  PATERSON Garry;  GONÇALVES Maria Da Conceição;  THEOCHAROPOULOS Sid;  YEMEFACK Martin;  TEDOU Silatsa;  VRSCAJ Borut;  GROB Urs;  KOZAK Josef;  BORUVKA Lubos;  DOBOS Endre;  TABOADA M.;  MORETTI Lucas;  RODRIGUEZ Dario; 

2017-08-03

ELSEVIER LIMITED

JRC107179

2214-2428,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214242816300699,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC107179,   

10.1016/j.grj.2017.06.001,