article · GeoResJ
Over the past seventy years, valuable soil data has been generated globally, but much of it remains fragmented on paper and at risk of permanent loss. To preserve and utilise these resources, international and national initiatives are rescuing legacy soil records and compiling them into structured digital databases. Thousands of historical reports and maps have been scanned and shared online. Approximately 800,000 soil profiles have been recovered across selected countries, with 117,000 harmonised into a global database under GlobalSoilMap standards. Despite these milestones, the majority of global soil information remains unrescued. The digitised records have enabled the creation of continuous global soil property maps through complementary top-down and bottom-up approaches. Following global map releases at one-kilometre resolution in 2014 and 250-metre resolution in 2017, work is directed toward delivering a fully compliant worldwide soil mapping product by the end of 2020.
Decades of historical soil surveys hold vital information about land and environmental conditions, but paper records face decay and loss. Digitising and harmonising these archives preserves irreplaceable scientific knowledge into accessible formats. This enables the creation of high-resolution digital maps, helping land managers, planners, and researchers understand soil variability and make better-informed environmental decisions across national and global scales.
Standardised digital soil property maps provide baseline information that can support agricultural software developers, environmental consultants, and land management professionals. Because datasets have already been released at 250-metre resolution, parts of this work are applied and available for immediate use in spatial planning and mapping tools, while broader worldwide standardised products represent near-market resources that were scheduled for completion by late 2020.
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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.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.grj.2017.06.001
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