Third meeting of the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII), 31 October - 1 November 2017, FAO headquarters, Rome. Composed by institutions working on soil information in FAO member countries INSII provides expertise, and facilitates soil data/information sharing. Presentation by Rik van den Bosch, Soil Data Facility Chair, International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC).

1. GSP – Soil Data Facility work plan 2018
Rik van den Bosch
Third workshop of the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII)
Rome, 31 October - 1 November 2017

2. Contents
• About ISRIC – World Soil Information
• The role of the SDF
• Proposed work plan for the SDF

3. Some features
• Founded in 1966, upon recommendation of UNESCO, FAO and the IUSS
• Independent foundation based in Wageningen
• Cooperation agreement with Wageningen University.
• 20 staff, plus guest employees, plus students
• Accredited as the World Data Centre for Soils (WDC Soils) by the International Council for Science
• As WDC Soils we feed our data into GEOSS

4. Mission
• We produce and serve quality-assured soil information together with our partners at global,
national and regional levels.
• We stimulate the use of this information to address global challenges through capacity building,
awareness raising and direct cooperation with users and clients.

5. Work streams at ISRIC
1. Standard setting for soils assessment and soil information
2. Brokering of (global) soil information
3. Capacity building for the design and use of soil information services.
4. Developing derived knowledge products for sustainable soil and land management.
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6. Developed / contributed to
• World Reference Base
• HWSD
• GLASOD / GLADA
• SOTER / eSOTER
• WoSIS
• African Soil Profile database (AfSIS)
• SoilGrids
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7. Role of the SDF
• Host, develop, maintain elements of the GloSIS
• Provide components for INSII members who choose not to develop own services
• Actively participate in P4WG
• Support technical elements of the GloSIS
• Support the design and implementation of GloSIS
• Support the delivery of SoilSTAT
• Connect to GEOSS

8. Our offer
• We endorse the approach and principles of GSP Pillar 4 (IP Policy, distributed system,
bottom up approach with capacity building)
• 2 fte for 3 years
• Various specialists, depending on requirements in the annual plans
• Cooperation with scientific community
• We will develop annual plans to be endorsed by INSII

9. Role of the SDF
• Host, develop, maintain elements of the GloSIS
• Provide components for INSII members who choose not develop own services
• Actively participate in P4WG
• Support technical elements of the GloSIS
• Support the design and implementation of GloSIS
• Support the delivery of SoilSTAT
• Connect to GEOSS

10. Data products in GloSIS according to P4IP
1. Soil Profile and Analytical Database:
• Tier 1: comprehensive database
• Tier 2: reference database (quality controlled, harmonized)
2. Global Polygon Coverage (at scale 1:1M)
3. Global Grids:
• Harmonized World Soil Database Version 2 (HWSD2)
• Fine-resolution grid of soil properties Version 0 (collection of contributed grids)
• Fine-resolution grid of soil properties Version 1 (standardized and harmonized)

11. Scope of the proposed work plan
• Initial focus on
• Tier 1 and Tier 2 soil profile databases
• Fine-resolution grid of soil properties Version 0 and 1.
• Postpone HWSD2 and Global Polygon Coverage
• SDF concentrates on technical infrastructure and its styling.
• Delivery of content is a responsibility of the INSII members.
• Focus on basic functionality of the GloSIS components (to be defined). Web 2.0 functionality only
achievable with additional funding.
• Responsibility for quality control with the data providers.

12. Scope of the proposed work plan
• Includes hosting of GloSIS on ISRIC managed servers to ensure long-term stability.
• Upon request by the P4WG the GSP-SDF may also:
• provide support to the development of SoilSTAT;
• contribute to capacity building and development of training materials;
• contribute to the development of quality control protocols for data products.

13. 3 sections in the proposed work plan
1. Technical specifications of GloSIS (2018)
2. Building the GloSIS data portal (2019)
3. Population of the GloSIS data portal (2019 – 2020)

14. Section 1: Technical specs of GloSIS
Main objective: develop technical specifications of data portal and its data products
• Functionality of GloSIS must meet the demands of the users (e.g. SoilSTAT, as a launching
customer)
• All technical specification will be submitted to P4WG/INSII for approval before implementation
(section 2).
• Two levels of functionality
• Basic functionality: data viewing, querying and downloading
• Fully-functional (Web 2.0): also includes data upload, user customization, automatic quality control and
import, automated mosaicking and production of merged gridded products, visualisation of statistics,
etc.

15. Task 1.1 Specs for the data products
• develop technical specifications of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 soil profile databases
• (contribute to) development of specifications of the fine resolution grids
• Existing technical specs (GlobalSoilMap, GSOC, SOTER, WoSIS) will form the basis.
• P4WG / INSII to decide if the GlobalSoilMap specs are satisfactory or need adaptation (i.c.w. IUSS
GSM Working Group)

16. Task 1.2 Specs for the data portal
• Define the architecture of the portal
• Develop the technical specs of the portal
• hardware
• software (open source)
• technologies required for each component
• connection of the components

17. Section 2: Building the GloSIS portal
Main objective: develop data portal and its data products
• If no additional funding: focus on system with basic functionality.
• Build on previous experience gained with e.g. GSOC and Soil Interoperablity Experiment (SoilML)
• Outcome will be data portal that serves some demo data (required for development).

18. Task 2.1 Develop system to host the
Tier 1 and Tier 2 profile databases
• Connects decentralised and centralized databases.
• System will have data storage, discovery, view and download functionality.
• Version-control and data exchange standards should be considered when developing the system.

19. Task 2.2 Develop the system for grids
(V0 and V1)
• develop a system to host and disseminate the version 0 grids
• develop distributed and centralized database systems to host and disseminate the Version 1 grids.
• System will have data storage, discovery, view and download functionality.
• GSOC maps useful as pilot data for system development.

20. Section 3: Population of the GloSIS portal
Task 3.1 Facilitate population of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 soil profile databases with national / regional
contributions
• Standardization done by the data provider according to the technical specifications.
Task 3.2 Facilitate population of the Version 0 and Version 1 grid systems and develop a Version 1 global
product.
• Global Version 1 grids will be developed from national and regional contributions.

21. Time frame
Specifications (Section 1, data products and portal ): 2018
Building the portal (Section 2): 2019
Populating the portal (Section 3): 2019-2020

22. Proposed process
• Discuss this plan (tomorrow)
• Get approval by INSII on headlines (tomorrow)
• ISRIC to develop a detailed plan (November)
• Get approval on detailed plan by P4WG (December)
• Start working (January 2018)

23. Some issues to be discussed
• Is the focus on databases and grids the right choice?
• First design, than built?
• Do we produce the data products from P4IP only? Or also focus on derived information products
for specific users?
• Should we encourage gathering new data?
• Is it INSII’s responsibility to built SoilSTAT? Or do we see SoilSTAT as a (launching) customer?
• Will P5 deliver the tools (in-time) to do standardisation and harmonisation?
• How do we harmonise capacity building

24. Rik.vandenbosch@isric.org
www.isric.org