Towards a Global Soil Information SystemYusuf Yigini – FAO – Global Soil Partnership Secretariat

Global Soil Partnership?

• Global Soil Partnership was established inDecember 2012 as a mechanism to develop astrong interactive partnership and enhancedcollaboration and synergy of efforts between allstakeholders.

• From land users to policy makers, one of the keyobjectives of the GSP is to improve thegovernance and promote sustainablemanagement of soils.

GSP Pillars of Action

1. Promote sustainable management of soil resources and improvedglobal governance for soil protection and sustainable productivity;

2. Encourage investment, technical cooperation, policy, education,awareness and extension in soils;

3. Promote targeted soil research development focusing on identifiedgaps, priorities and synergies among economic, environmental and socialdimensions;

4. Enhance the quality and availability of soil data and information:collection, analysis, validation, reporting, monitoring, integration withother disciplines;

5. Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators for thesustainable management and protection of soil resources.

to achieve its mandate, the GSP addresses five pillars of action to be implemented in collaboration with its regional soil partnerships.

GSP - Pillar 4 Pillar 4 of the GSP essentially addresses thedevelopment of an enduring and authoritativeglobal system to monitor and forecast thecondition of the Earth’s soil resources.

PILLAR 1

PILLAR 2

PILLAR 3

PILLAR 5

GSP - Pillar 5

Pillar 5 Providing mechanisms forthe collation, analysis and exchangeof consistent and comparable globalsoil data and informationPillar 5 is a basic foundation of Pillar4, and enables Pillar 4 to buildGloSIS Federation with consistentand comparable harmonised soilinformation.

Pillar 4 - Governance

GSP Plenary Assembly as the main decision making body of the GSP where progress on Pillar 4 implementation is reported.GSP secretariat to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of Pillar 4Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) as the body responsible for providing scientific advice to the Pillar 4 implementation

Pillar 4 - Governance• INSII - The International Network of Soil Information Institutions forms the backbone of Pillar 4.

• P4WG (Pillar 4 Working Group) The INSII network is supported by a technical working group of soil information experts. It’s the supervisory body of Pillar 4 implementation. Also, it conducts tasks delegated by INSII

• SDF (GSP Soil Data Facility) is to provide technical and infrastructure support to the Global Soil Information System (GloSIS), to be established as per the Pillar 4 Implementation Plan.

Pillar 4 Implementation Plan

Based on the endorsed Plan of Action.

Developed by P4WG and INSII

Provides the guidance to build the global soil information system (GloSIS).

Pillar 4 & GloSIS

Flagship Initiative of the Global Soil Partnership Owned by the member countries Federated architecture Co-operative design, actively involving all

stakeholders Supports countries in developing their own soil

information systems. Develop and improve capacities at national level

Global Soil Partnership and member countries building a Global SoilInformation System (GloSIS) relying on national capacities andnational soil information systems.

DATA DESIGNDesign & InfrastructureData Population

GloSIS Design➔Coordinated by GSP Secretariat and GSP Soil

Data Facility (SDF; ISRIC – World SoilInformation), with contributions from Pillar 4Working Group, Pillar 5, soil informationexperts.

➔Establishment of the federated (country-driven) Global Soil Information System(GLOSIS) in accordance with the approvedPillar 4 Implementation Plan.

GloSIS - Federation

➔Federation of soil information systems (SIS),in which different nodes are able tocommunicate using commonlanguage/standards.

➔This federated approach will empowercountries to develop their national soilinformation systems as reference centres fornational soil information.

GloSIS – CountrySIS

The GSP will support and encourage theparticipation of countries in GloSIS throughthe ‘CountrySIS’ framework.

CountrySIS Framework will define thetechnical specifications for such systems, aswell as implementation manuals, tools andsoftware .

GloSIS – Participation LevelsThe federative architecture will allow data providers to choose between three different levels of adhesion to GloSIS:

1. Ad hoc implementation - a SIS, that based on diverse technologies, is able to publish data complying with the GloSIS data exchange model. This is likely to be the case for the countries that already have a SIS in place and wish to join GloSIS.

GloSIS – Participation LevelsThe federative architecture will allows for data providers to choose between three different levels of adhesion to GloSIS:

1. Ad hoc implementation - a SIS, that while based on diverse technologies, is able to publish data complying with the GloSIS data exchange. This is likely to be the case with institutions that already have a SIS in place and wish to join GloSIS.

Figure: SDF – ISRIC 2018

GloSIS – Participation Levels

2. Reference implementation - data providers build their soil information system based on the reference implementation of a GloSIS node, which is an off-the-shelf, deployable bundle of technologies that perform the functions of a node, plus data management.

GloSIS – Participation Levels

2. Reference implementation - data providers build their soil information system based on the reference implementation of a GloSIS node, which is an off-the-shelf, deployable bundle of technologies that perform the functions of a node, plus data management.

Figure: SDF – ISRIC 2018

GloSIS – Participation Levels

3. Support implementation - for data providerslacking the resources or knowledge to set up andmaintain a reference node.

In this case their data are stored and published by thesupport node, thus automatically complying with theGloSIS domain model and the data exchange.

GloSIS – Participation Levels

3. Support implementation - for data providerslacking the resources or knowledge to set up andmaintain a reference node. In this case their data arestored and published by the support node, thusautomatically complying with the GloSIS domain modeland the data exchange.

Figure: SDF – ISRIC 2018

GSP Data policy

The data flow will be governed by the endorsed GSP datapolicy. The GSP Data Policy has been developed by theGlobal Soil Partnership Secretariat in order to promote soildata sharing for data products

The data policy is applicable to all members of the GSPand FAO and all user groups including end users,developers and contributors that share soil data throughthe Global Soil Information System and SoilSTAT.

Challenge• Ambitious task to develop and implement GloSIS through a

federated approach in 3 years time (2018-2020).

• Lack of funding; cost estimate P4 implementation 8-9M USD.

• Voluntary contributions;

• Engagement of countries, data holders, individuals;

• Data sharing: restricted data access.

• Strengthen national capacities on soil information

• Improved visibility of a national SIS; enhance usability of (national) soil data.

• Contribute to more consistent and accurate global soil data products to be used in SDG-related global assessments (informing national policy development).

• Better interoperability:

• to support (inter)national scientific research;

• to address trans-boundary issues.

• Supports private sector in countries to assess international soil resources, for instance for developing sustainable food chains.

Strengths & Benefits

Data Products

SoilSTATStatistics component of the Global Soil Information System(GLOSIS) and the tool for monitoring global soil resources. TheGSP and its partners will design SoilSTAT and the system willbe used for monitoring, forecasting and reporting periodicallyon the status of global soil resources. The name of the systemmirrors the FAOSTAT family.

STATUS > concept note on the content and design.

Data Products

• Soil profile databases (Tiered Approach – T1 T2)

• Global polygon coverage, to replace FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World (1:5M, 1971-1980)

• Global Grids:

• Harmonized World Soil Database, HWSD V2

• Fine-resolution grid of soil properties, V0

• Fine resolution grid of soil properties, V1

Data ProductsSoil Profile Databases – Tiered Approach

Tier 1 SPDB - This is a large soil profile and analyticaldatabase for the world without the stringent requirement fora minimum parameter set or representativeness.

The objective of such a database is to provide access to asmany digital profile data sets as possible.

Data ProductsSoil Profile Databases – Tiered Approach

• Tier 2 SPDB - This is a “world reference-soil database”

containing well-described and analysed soil profiles.

• Technically, it will be a subset of Tier 1.

• Tier 2 includes harmonised and quality-assured

morphological, physical and chemical data for soil

profiles which are globally representative.

Status > Technical specifications (draft completed, July 2018, SDF)

Data ProductsFine Resolution Soil Grids

• V0 - The fine-resolution grid Version 0 represents rasterdata sets based on the up-scaling of validated, measuredsoil profiles in conjunction with a large number ofcovariate layers that have some relation to soil geography(e.g., DEM, terrain indices, vegetation indices, soilpolygon maps) and soil forming factors using digital soilmapping techniques.

Data ProductsFine Resolution Soil Grids

V1 - The Version 0 grid, has the following differences fromthe envisioned final Version 1 product:

• The v0 grid is neither harmonised nor seamless.

• The Version 0 horizontal resolution (1km) is significantlycoarse compared to Version 1 (3x3 Arc-second, roughly90 m).

Status > First V0 grid launched – Global Soil Organic Carbon Map

Data ProductsGlobal Polygon Coverage and HWSD V2

• GPC - This product suits users requiring an overview of global soilgeography. The polygon map consists of discrete map units withaccompanying soil classification as well as soil properties at the map unitlevel.

• HWSD2 - The current HWSD is v1.2 , the result of a collaborationbetween the FAO with IIASA, ISRIC-World Soil Information, Institute of SoilScience, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS), and the Joint ResearchCentre of the European Commission (JRC). New regional soil data andinformation available for updating the Harmonized World Soil Database(HWSD).

Status > under planning

GSOCmap➔First data element of the GloSIS➔1st ever country-driven soil organic carbon

assessment at global scale➔ Launched on the World Soil Day 2017➔ The process supported by the GSP Capacity

Development Programme, technicaldocuments, and communication materials.

➔ Has brought State-of-the-art methods tomember countries into everyday practice

GSOCmap

GSOCmap Key Outcomes➔The process proved the feasibility of the distributed approach;

➔Established trust and bond between member countries and the FAO GSP;

➔Improved national capacities

➔National and regional expert knowledge well embedded;

➔Unveiled also the current status of the national soil information;

➔The map will help to shape policy and action towards climate change mitigation, sequestering more carbon and protecting carbon rich soils.

Ground Data

Measurements

~1 Million

1Pg = 1 Billion Tonnes

Global SOC

Stock

~680 Pg

Known Issues

➔ Fresh Data!➔ Baseline!➔ Harmonisation!➔ Depth! 30 cm

Versioning

• The GSOCmap is a living product and is being updated as soon as more and better information is available (current version 1.2.0).

• The GSP uses semantic versioning at certain level so that there is a standard pattern to data releases.

GloSIS – Global Grid Products➔ Global Soil Organic Carbon Map

(GSOCmap) (Launched – V1.2.0)

➔Global Soil Erosion Map (Concept Note)

➔Global Soil Salinity Map (Technical Specs)

➔Global Assessment of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration Potential (Technical Specs)

➔ Global Black Soil Distribution Map (INBS) (Concept Note)

GSSmap Timeline