The 21st World Congress of Soil Science Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 12 - 17 August 2018

2. Global Soil Information System
Yusuf Yigini – GSP Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
Global Soil Partnership, GSP Soil Data Facility (ISRIC), GSP Pillar 4 Working Group

3. GSP - Pillar 4
Pillar 4 of the GSP essentially addresses the
development of an enduring and authoritative
global system to monitor and forecast the
condition of the Earth’s soil resources.
PILLAR 1
PILLAR 2
PILLAR 3
PILLAR 5

4. Pillar 4 - Governance
The International Network of Soil Information
Institutions (INSII) forms the backbone of Pillar
4. The INSII network is supported by a
technical working group of soil information
experts (Pillar 4 Working Group).

5. Pillar 4 Working Group
• Chair: Neil McKenzie , GSP Secretary: Ronald Vargas
• Coordination: Yusuf Yigini (GSP), Pillar 5 Chair: Rainer Baritz
• Soil Data Facility: Rik van den Bosch (ISRIC)
Africa: Christian Omuto
Asia: Toshiaki Ohkura
Europe: Edoardo Costantini
Eurasia: Laziza Gafurova
Central America: Renato J. Zúñiga
South America: Guillermo Federico
Olmedo
Near East and North Africa: Rachid
Moussadek
North America: Bert VandenBygaart
South West Pacific: Mike Grundy

6. Pillar 4 Implementation Plan
• Based on the endorsed
Plan of Action.
• Developed by P4WG/INSII
• Provides the guidance to
build the global soil
information system
(GloSIS).

7. Pillar 4 & GloSIS
➔One of the flagship initiatives 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 data and
information systems.
➔Develop and improve capacities at national level
Global Soil Partnership and member countries building a Global Soil
Information System (GloSIS) relying on national capacities and
national soil information systems.

9. Data Products
SoilSTAT
Statistics component of the Global Soil Information System
(GLOSIS) and the tool for monitoring global soil resources. The
GSP and its partners will design SoilSTAT and the system will
be used for monitoring, forecasting and reporting periodically
on the status of global soil resources. The name of the system
mirrors the FAOSTAT family.
STATUS > concept note on the content and design.

10. Data Products
GloSIS
• 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

11. Data Products
Soil Profile Databases – Tiered Approach
Tier 1 SPDB - This is a large soil profile and analytical
database for the world without the stringent requirement for
a minimum parameter set or representativeness which often
severely limits the number of available profiles.
The objective of such a database is to provide access to as
many digital profile data sets as possible.

12. Data Products
Soil Profile Databases – Tiered Approach
• Tier 2 SPDB - This is a “world reference-soil database” containing well-
described and analysed soil profiles.
• Technically, it can be a subset of Tier 1, but it can also be compiled of other
soil profiles. However, the Tier 2 specifications will contain requirements on
the content, quality and documentation of soil profile data.
• Tier 2 includes harmonized and quality-assured morphological, physical and
chemical data for soil profiles which are globally representative of geographic
regions, major soil types.
Status > Technical specifications (draft completed, July 2018, GSP – SDF)

13. Data Products
Global Polygon Coverage and HWSD V2
•GPC - This product suits users requiring an overview of global soil
geography. The polygon map consists of discrete map units with
accompanying soil classification as well as soil properties at the map unit
level.
•HWSD2 - The current HWSD is v1.2 , the result of a collaboration
between the FAO with IIASA, ISRIC-World Soil Information, Institute of Soil
Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS), and the Joint Research
Centre of the European Commission (JRC). New regional soil data and
information available for updating the Harmonized World Soil Database
(HWSD).
Status > under planning

14. Data Products
Fine Resolution Soil Grids
•V0 - The fine-resolution grid Version 0 represents raster data sets
based on the up-scaling of validated, measured soil profiles in
conjunction with a large number of covariate layers that have some
relation to soil geography (e.g., DEM, terrain indices, vegetation
indices, soil polygon maps) and soil forming factors using digital soil
mapping techniques.

15. Data Products
Fine Resolution Soil Grids
V1 - The Version 0 grid, has the following differences from the envisioned
final Version 1 product:
• Not all the world is represented by national/regional contributions to the
v0 grid.
• The v0 grid is neither harmonized nor seamless.
• Unless P4WG will advise differently, there is no standard list of
properties nor of their methods of measurement; there is no standard
depth resolution.
• The Version 0 horizontal resolution (1km) is significantly coarse
compared to Version 1 (3x3 Arc-second, roughly 90 m).
Status > First V0 grid launched – Global Soil Organic Carbon GSOCmap

16. GSOCmap
➔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, technical documents, and communication materials.
➔Has brought State-of-the-art methods to member countries into
everyday practice

17. GSOCmap Key Outcomes
➔ The process proved the feasibility of the distributed approach;
➔ Established trust and bond between member countries and the
FAO GSP;
➔ The best available estimation of global SOC stocks;
➔ National and regional expert knowledge well embedded and
applicable for reporting on national level;
➔ 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.

18. GSOCmap

19. 2nd GSP Symposium - Soil Information
A Prerequisite for Sustainable Soil Management
Friday 17 August 2018, from 10:30 to 12:30
The Windsor Convention & Expo Center

20. GloSIS Implementation
➔Coordinated by GSP Secretariat and GSP Soil Data
Facility (SDF; ISRIC – World Soil Information), with
contributions from Pillar 4 Working Group, Pillar 5, soil
information experts.
➔Establishment of the federated (country-driven) Global
Soil Information System (GLOSIS) in accordance with
the approved Pillar 4 Implementation Plan.

21. GloSIS Building Blocks
GloSIS will be built with architectural and engineering building blocks.
•The architectural are mostly abstract, setting out
structures and formalising knowledge.
•The engineering building blocks concern primarily the
technologies that realise the structures set out in the
architecture.

22. GloSIS Building Blocks
• Domain Model - Abstract component that defines how data are organised.
• Data Exchange - A realisation of the GloSIS domain model allowing different
parties to send/receive soil data through a well-recognised medium.
• GloSIS Node - A node connected to the internet able to publish soil data
according to the GloSIS data exchange.
• Support Node – SIS Node hosted and maintained by the GSP. Intended to
harbour data from institutions that are not able to set up their own node.
• Discovery hub - A web-based gateway to the GloSIS nodes, able to access the
federation and offering data browsing and discovery functionalities. It brings
all nodes together into a single point of access.

23. GloSIS - Federation
➔Federation of soil information systems (SIS), in
which different nodes are able to communicate
using common language/standards.
➔This federated approach will empower countries
to develop their national soil information systems
as reference centres for national soil information.

24. GloSIS – Participation Levels
The GSP will support and encourage the
participation of countries and other data providers
in GloSIS through a ‘CountrySIS’ framework.
CountrySIS Guidelines will define the technical
specifications for such systems, as well as an
implementation manual (cookbook), will be
developed for this purpose.

25. GloSIS – Participation Levels
The federative architecture will allow for 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. This is
likely to be the case for the institutions that
already have a SIS in place and wish to join GloSIS.

26. GloSIS – Participation Levels
The 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: GSP SDF – ISRIC 2018

27. 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.

28. 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: GSP SDF – ISRIC 2018

29. GloSIS – Participation Levels
3. Support implementation - for data providers
lacking the resources or knowledge to set up and
maintain a reference node. In this case their data are
stored and published by the support node, thus
automatically complying with the GloSIS domain model
and the data exchange.

30. GloSIS – Participation Levels
3. Support implementation - for data providers
lacking the resources or knowledge to set up and
maintain a reference node. In this case their data are
stored and published by the support node, thus
automatically complying with the GloSIS domain model
and the data exchange.
Figure: GSP SDF – ISRIC 2018

31. GSP Data policy
The data flow will be governed by the endorsed GSP data
policy. The GSP Data Policy has been developed by the Global
Soil Partnership Secretariat in order to promote soil data
sharing for data products
The data policy is applicable to all members of the GSP and
FAO and all user groups including end users, developers and
contributors that share soil data through the Global Soil
Information System and SoilSTAT.

32. • Review and finalize technical documents (Q4 2018).
• Author CountrySIS Guidelines (Oct 2018 – Mar 2019).
• Develop GloSIS node reference implementation (Jan – Apr 2019).
• Develop beta-version of the Data Discovery Hub (Jan – Jun 2019).
• GloSIS implementation pilot phase with selected countries (Apr –
Dec 2019).
• Develop CountrySIS Cookbook (Jul – Dec 2019).
• Technical specifications of the fine-resolution grids, in
collaboration with the IUSS WG GlobalSoilMap.
Work plan Q4 2018 – 2019 (draft)

33. Progress
• Developing technical documents (2018):
• GloSIS vision document (draft completed, August 2018).
• Technical specifications of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 soil profile databases (draft completed,
July 2018).
• Domain model specifications (Sep 2018).
• Data exchange specifications (Sep 2018).
• Data model specifications (Oct 2018).
• CountrySIS:
• survey on the status of soil information and soil information systems send to countries
(Jun 2018).
• Invite experts on (soil) information systems to guide the development of GloSIS and
CountrySIS (Aug - Sep 2018).

34. • 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).
• Make national data compatible and exchangeable with other data sources:
• 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

35. 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.

36. 2nd GSP Symposium - Soil Information,
A Prerequisite for Sustainable Soil Management
Friday 17 August 2018, from 10:30 to 12:30
The Windsor Convention & Expo Center