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. 2017 Dec;14(9):1-19.
doi: 10.1016/j.grj.2017.06.001.

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

Dominique Arrouays  1 , Johan G B Leenaars  1 , Anne C Richer-de-Forges  1 , Koushik Adhikari  2 , Cristiano Ballabio  3 , Mogens Greve  2 , Mike Grundy  4 , Eliseo Guerrero  5 , Jon Hempel  6 , Tomislav Hengl  7 , Gerard Heuvelink  7 , Niels Batjes  7 , Eloi Carvalho  7 , Alfred Hartemink  8 , Alan Hewitt  9 , Suk-Young Hong  10 , Pavel Krasilnikov  11 , Philippe Lagacherie  12 , Glen Lelyk  13 , Zamir Libohova  14 , Allan Lilly  15 , Alex McBratney  16 , Neil McKenzie  4 , Gustavo M Vasquez  17 , Vera Leatitia Mulder  18 , Budiman Minasny  16 , Montanarella Luca  3 , Inakwu Odeh  16 , Jose Padarian  16 , Laura Poggio  15 , Pierre Roudier  9 , Nicolas Saby  1 , Igor Savin  19   20 , Ross Searle  4 , Vladimir Solbovoy  19 , James Thompson  21 , Scott Smith  13 , Yiyi Sulaeman  22 , Ruxandra Vintila  23 , Raphael Viscarra Rossel  4 , Peter Wilson  4 , Gan-Lin Zhang  24 , Martine Swerts  25 , Katrien Oorts  25 , Aldis Karklins  26 , Liu Feng  24 , Alexandro R Ibelles Navarro  5 , Arkadiy Levin  27 , Tetiana Laktionova  27 , Martin Dell'Acqua  28 , Nopmanee Suvannang  29 , Waew Ruam  29 , Jagdish Prasad  30 , Nitin Patil  30 , Stjepan Husnjak  31 , Laszlo Pasztor  32 , Joop Okx  33 , Stephen Hallet  34 , Caroline Keay  34 , Timothy Farewell  34 , Harri Lilja  35 , Jerome Juilleret  36 , Simone Marx  36 , Yusuke Takata  37 , Yagi Kazuyuki  37 , Nicolas Mansuy  38 , Panos Panagos  3 , Mark Van Liedekerke  3 , Rastislav Skalsky  39 , Jaroslava Sobocka  39 , Josef Kobza  39 , Kamran Eftekhari  40 , Seyed Kacem Alavipanah  40 , Rachid Moussadek  41 , Mohamed Badraoui  41 , Mayesse Da Silva  42 , Garry Paterson  43 , Maria da Conceicao Gonsalves  44 , Sid Theocharopoulos  45 , Martin Yemefack  46 , Silatsa Tedou  46 , Borut Vrscaj  47 , Urs Grob  48 , Josef Kozak  49 , Lubos Boruvka  49 , Endre Dobos  50 , Miguel Taboada  51 , Lucas Moretti  51 , Dario Rodriguez  51
Affiliations

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

Dominique Arrouays et al. GeoResJ. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: GlobalSoilMap; Soil data rescue; legacy data.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Log-Log scatterplot of countries areas versus soil profiles
Figure 2
Figure 2
Location of the soil profiles rescued in WoSIS
Figure 3
Figure 3
Location of the data rescued in the Sub-Saharan Africa Soil Profiles database
Figure 4
Figure 4
USA National Cooperative Soil Survey soil profile data rescued between 2009 and 2016. Green dots represent the 2009 soil profile data and the red dots represent the 2016 soil profile data showing an increase in their number from 29, 130 to 60, 962.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Rescued soil profiles in France between 2009 (left) and 2015 (right) (France). Complete soil profiles with full description are in red, auger borings are in green. The total number of points in 2009 is 76, 400, and 160, 103 in 2015.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Distribution of sites contained in the previously existing national NatSoil Database of Australia (11, 500 sites) and (b) distribution of sites contained in the new National Site Data Collation (NSSC) database (281, 000 Sites)
Figure 7
Figure 7
Contour map of the (Sub-Saharan) Africa Soil Maps database.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Maps of mean soil organic carbon (g.kg-) at the 6 standard depths for continental USA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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