http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership This presentation was made during European soil partnership meeeting that took place in Rome, italy at FAO HQ 17-18 March 2015. The presentation was made by Dr Allan Lilly, and it has the objective to present the pillar 4 of the Global Soil Partnership. ©FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. Global Soil Partnership, European
Soil Partnership
Dr Allan Lilly, F.I.Soil Sci.
Principal Soil Scientist
Chair, European Soil Bureau Network

2.  To support and facilitate joint efforts towards
sustainable management of soil resources for food
security and climate change adaptation and
mitigation.
 Endorsed by 193 UN nations at Rio+20,
 Currently there is an Intergovernmental Technical
Panel on Soils
 Encourages formation of Regional Partnerships

3. Pillar 1:
Sustainable soil
Management
Pillar 4:
Soil data and Information
Pillar 3:
Research
Pillar 2:
Investment,
awareness, extension
Pillar 5:
Harmonize, standardize,
facilitate, manage
Relationship between Pillars:
Global Earth Observing
System of Systems
eg Land cover, climate
IUSS
WG SIS

4. Pillar 4: GSP Action Plan
Initial 23 Recommendations from ITPS reduced to 4 high-level:
1. An enduring system for monitoring and forecasting the condition
of soil resources
2. This system to use national and regional soil data though a
collaborative network and include facilities to incorporate new data
– distributed design, IP remains with data providers
3. Soil information should integrate with ‘Earth Observation System’
4. There should be a training programme for new monitoring,
mapping and forecasting specialists

5. Pillar 4: Why do we need a Soil
Information System?
Is there enough land with good soil to feed the population?
Are we managing soil, nutrients and water to maximise yields,
maintain other functions and minimise degradation/GHG
emissions?
The quality of
global soil datasets
compares poorly
with other on
eg geology, land
cover, climate

6. Pillar 4:
Current position:
FAO-appointed consultant /WG to turn Action Plan
into an Implementation Plan:
• Governance
• Global datasets
o Grid
o Profile
• Monitoring , forecasting and reporting
• Integrate with GEOSS
• Training
GEOSS -Global Earth Observation System of Systems

7. Pillar 4: European Soil Partnership
Proposed lead organisation: European Soil Bureau
Network (ESBN): >50 experts
from >35 European countries
(Voluntary)
• 1:1 M soil map Europe
• Supporting profile datasets
o SPADE
o HYPRES
o EU-HYDI
• Monitoring
o ENVASSO
o LUCAS
Land Use/Cover Area frame Statistical Survey

8. "A cloak of loose, soft material,
held to the earth's hard surface by
gravity, is all that lies between life
and lifelessness."
- Wallace H. Fuller, 1975.

9. Global Soil Partnership, European
Soil Partnership
Dr Allan Lilly, F.I.Soil Sci.
Principal Soil Scientist
Chair, European Soil Bureau Network

10. Pillar 1:
Sustainable soil
Management
Pillar 4:
Soil data and Information
Pillar 3:
Research
Pillar 2:
Investment,
awareness, extension
Pillar 5:
Harmonize, standardize,
facilitate, manage
Relationship between Pillars:
Global Earth Observing
System of Systems
eg Land cover, climate
IUSS
WG SIS

11. Links to other Groups
European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN):
• >50 experts from >35 European countries
• Voluntary Network
• 1:1 M soil map Europe
• Supporting profile datasets
o SPADE
o HYPRES
o EU-HYDI
• Monitoring
o ENVASSO

12. European Soil Partnership
• FAO Global Soil Partnership sees establishment of Regional
elements.
• Build on existing regional networks or collaborative processes (e.g.
Danube, ESBN) by linking national and local networks, partners,
projects and activities.
• Address regional goals / priorities through implementation of Action
Plan to strengthen work on soils and to develop synergies with other
relevant initiatives and activities.
Pillar 4: Enhance the quantity and quality of soil data and information:
data collection (generation), analysis, validation, reporting, monitoring
and integration with other disciplines.

13. Mapping Europe using Digital Methods
UK
Ireland
France
Danube Basin
Denmark
16 countries
Czech Republic

14. Methodology for Danube Basin – a
model for Europe?
• Agree on a common database structure to support soil and land policy
development.
• Attribute tables linked to the structures and standards outlined in the
documentation of the INSPIRE, SGDBE and e-SOTER schemes.
• Develop a coherent physiographic polygon base derived from SOTER
principles based on high resolution DEM coverage.
• Soil information to be extracted from relevant national sources (e.g. legacy
data, profile archives, remote sensing, etc.) to populate the physiographic
polygons.
• This approach has a strong subsidiarity status as there is no obligation for
the transfer of primary datasets from Member States as the generation
/assignment of soil data are carried out by the relevant
national organizations.
• Data will be INSPIRE compliment.

15. SOTER
Underpinning SOTER is the identification of areas of land with a distinctive,
often repetitive, pattern of landform, lithology, surface form, slope, parent
material and soil. Tracts of land distinguished in this manner are named
SOTER units. Each SOTER unit thus represents one unique combination of
terrain and soil characteristics (i.e. a SMU and STU).

16. Harmonised data collection and
monitoring
Current assessments of the state and trends of soil characteristics
across Europe are difficult due to a lack of current and harmonised
data and monitoring systems. Policy makers require up-to-date
information for effective decision-making.
• Development of harmonised soil sampling programme for non-EU
counties in the Danube river basin based on the JRC's LUCAS-Soil
methodology;
• Development of benchmark soil sites to assess changes in soil
conditions;
• Focused collection of land and soil data through EIONET-SOIL
network.

17. ESBN contribution to soil data
collections and monitoring
• Supporting profile datasets
o SPADE - profile database (largely voluntary)
o HYPRES - soil physical data (Mobility funding)
o EU-HYDI - soil physical/chemical data
(Voluntary/JRC led)
• Monitoring
o ENVASSO – (EU funded)
(ENVironmental ASsessment of Soil for mOnitoring)

18. Potential next steps – ESBN
co-ordination
• Confirm status as national data holders and willingness to
collaborate – Coalition of the Willing
• establish current status of national soil data holdings with
attributes proposed by new methodology.
• Confirmation of methodology
• Define eventual database structure, spatial infrastructure,
road map and timeline.
• Establishment of regional development groups (based on
Soil Regions model, proximity, climate zones,…?).
• Advisory panel to assist in implementation of project.
• Work closely with JRC initiatives

19. "The nation that destroys its soil
destroys itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Consider what each soil will bear,
and what each refuses.”
Virgil

20. E-SOTER
e-SOTER: EC-funded FP7 project, 3.5 years, 14 partners
show how advances in land sensing technologies could be used to support and
advance the SOTER methodology.
The e-SOTER project showed that
• landform units could be successfully derived from DEM,
• soil patterns could (in some conditions) be mapped by remote sensing
• legacy data already held in the European Geographical Soil Database and
various national databases could be used to describe SOTER soil units.
A further conclusions of the project was that the SOTER methodology could
be adapted to develop a 1:250,000 product for Europe.

21. Soil attribute data GlobalSoilMap.net
Twelve soil properties will be predicted at each location to a depth of 2m
where possible at fixed depth intervals. These are:
(1) total profile depth (cm),
(2) plant exploitable (effective) soil depth (cm),
(3) organic carbon (g/kg),
(4) pH,
(5) sand (g/kg), (6) silt (g/kg), (7) clay (g/kg), (8) gravel (g/kg),
(9) ECEC (cmolc/kg)
(10) bulk density fine earth (Mg/m3)
(11) bulk density (Mg/m3) and
(12) available water capacity (mm).
Each soil property will have an estimate of the uncertainty associated with
the prediction for each depth for each grid location. Uncertainty is defined
as the 95% prediction interval (PI), which is the range in values within which
the true value at any prediction location is expected to be found 19 times out of 20 (95%).

22. Pillar 4: GSP Action Plan
Shared technical advances/ Training
Harmonized World Soil Database to be updated/Enhanced
profile database
1km vs 100m grid to be resolved
e SOTER approach possible
Pillar 4 Action Plan endorsed by GSP Plenary
Working Group formed End 2014 to further
develop and firm up the Action Plan

23. GlobalSoilMap.net
 Supported by the Australian Government and IUSS, this
project includes CSIRO, NRCS and ISRIC
 the aim is to produce a global map of specific soil
properties at a 100m resolution based on the principles of
digital soil mapping.
 There will be regional nodes
 The consortium secured money from the Gates
Foundation project to map the soils of sub-Saharan Africa
at a scale of 100m
 Much of the work will be based on legacy data with some
new spectral data collected
http://www.globalsoilmap.net/

24. eSoter – Soil and Terrain
Digital soil mapping protocol based on the traditional soils and
terrain protocols. Also uses legacy soil data. Designed to provide a
framework for producing a new soil map of the world and an
accompanying soil database.
 using remotely-sensed data both to validate and correct
existing survey data (and identify soil parent materials)
 generating new data surfaces – including DEM
 improving the quality of results of applications previously based
on legacy data alone
 Could contribute to a global soil map AND provide grid data
required by Global Soil Map consortium

25. Soter GlobalSoilMap
Spatial entity polygons Points and blocks
Spatial entity area Variable, but limited by the
scale at which polygons are
represented
90x90-m
Soil information Soil types and representative
soil profiles. Diagnostic soil
properties, derived soil
parameters
Selected mandatory soil
parameters (not limited) at
fixed depths intervals +
uncertainties
Scale 1:250,000 No scale
Data used DEM, PM maps, soil maps,
RS, soil profiles…
Same…
Method Basically => draw polygons
on physiography and parent
material => put soil
information in it.
Not unique. Various DSM
methods depending on
available data. Options
provided in the specs.
Complementarity Soter as a co-variate for
Global Soil map predictions ?
Global Soil Map as data to
populate Soter ?

26. Soter and GlobalSoilMap –
Some good reasons to collaborate
 The data to create the products are basically the same
 The soil experts are the same
 Both polygon and raster maps are useful
 They can benefit from mutual enrichment
 JRC and some member states are already working on a
GlobalSoilMap product at country or EU level