1. Global Soil
Organic Carbon
Map
Rainer Baritz
Global Soil Partnership

2. Background
 Request from the SPI-UNCCD to ITPS to prepare a Global Soil
Organic Carbon map as a contribution to the SDG process
(indicator 15.3.1).
 Part of the ongoing activities to establish the Global Soil
Information System under Pillar 4.
 Need to empower member countries to develop their own
national soil information using state of the art
techniques/methods.
 Crucial need to make SOC baseline available considering the
dynamic nature of soils.

3. Where are SOC data needed?
IPCC AR, GHG (MRV)
(AFOLU), INDC,
REDD+
FAO STAT (agro-env indicators and
UN statistics), Agriculture
productivity
National Biodiversity
Strategies and Action Plans
(NBSAPs), Aichi Targets
UNFCCC/IPCC
UNCCD
UNCBD/IPBES
UN-FAOSTAT
SDG (2.4, 15.2, 15.3)
Rio+20
UN World Soil Charter
Voluntary Guidelines for SSM
Status of the World’s Soil Resources Report
Global Soil information System and SoilSTAT
LDN target setting
National Action
Programmes (NAPs)
GSP

4. What is the current status of
spatial information about SOC
Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD): mostly 1km,
(some parts coarser), with soil properties from a separate
(and patchy) global soil profile data set.
ISRIC World Soil Profile data base
Batjes (2009)
Koechy et all. (2015)

5. SOC stock
values [Pg]
Depth [cm]
0-30 30-100 0-100 0-200 0-300 >100 Accuracy
Batjes (1996) 1462-1548 2376-2456 WISE (4353 soil profiles)
+ DSMW
Global Soil Data Task Group
(2000)
1550
Jobbagy and Jackson (2000) 1502 1993 2344 2721 soil profiles
grouped by biome
Henry et al. (2009) 1598 2521 DSMW
Henry et al. (2009) 1850 HWSD
Hiederer et al. (2011) 1455 HWSD v1.1
Schlesinger (1997, 2013) 1500 2500
Scharlemann et al. (2014) 1461
(504-3000)
Review of publications
1951 and 2011
Shangguan et al. (2014) 1455 230 cm:
1923
DSMW
Koechy et al (2015) – HWSD 1062 adjusted BD for organic
soils
Koechy et al. (2015) final 1325 3000
Stockmann et al. (2016) Change 2001-2009, 1 km, 0-10 cm 63,503 soil profiles

6. Spatial information about SOC:
new trends
 New trends based on digital soil mapping: soil grids based on
GlobalSoilMap.net specifications and ISRIC SoilGrids1km/250m
 Soil depth curves
 Spatial uncertainties
SOC [‰], topsoil (0–5cm).
110,000 soil profiles: partly accessible through WorldSoilProfiles.org data portal

7. Progress at national level
 Many recent national and regional SOC maps were developed;
(at least ca. 70 publications from 50 countries), with improved
national data bases and upscaling models
Denmark 45,000 point samples (2,050, 34k)
Poland 50,000 point samples (15,400, 247k)
Slovakia 16,636 soil profiles (2,400, 39k)
Examples for data used at national level:
[4x4 km] [1 km2]

8. Global Soil Information System

9. GSOCmap: national SOC mapping
 First test round of the Global Soil Information system following a
bottom-up approach.

10. GSOC Map: National contact
points and INSII
Status March 2017

11. GSOC Map: Capacity
development
GSP Trainings

12. GSOCmap Specifications
Guideline: detailed specifications
1 km grid (global raster)
0-30 cm, forest floor and peat <100
Metadata (input data, upscaling)
Spatial mapping: conventional upscaling
and DSM
Uncertainties (quantitative, qualitative)
Cookbook: detailed methods and working
steps, especially data preparation and
DSM

13. GSOCmap considerations
 Coordination and review: Intergovernmental Technical
Panel on Soils (ITPS)
 Framework: International Network of Soil Information
Institutions (INSII).
 GSOCmap first product of the Global Soil
Information System of the Global Soil Partnership
 GSOCmap: first delivery 5th of December World Soil Day.
2020

14. GSOCmap is not just a map!
It supports the development and
empowerment of national
capacities to build their National Soil
Information Systems.