INSII | International Network of Soil Information Institutions - 5th working session. 21 - 23 Oct 2019 | FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy.

1. GSP Pillar 4
Fine Resolution
Soil Grids
Establishing the Technical
Framework for Global Soil Grids
(Soil Properties & Soil Threats)
Dominique Arrouays
IUSS Global Soil Map WG

2. Background
During the 7th session of the GSP Plenary
Assembly it was decided that:
‘The International Union of Soil Sciences,
GlobalSoilMap Working Group will join the
GSP P4 Working Group to support the
development of Fine Resolution Grids of soil
properties’.
Questions Sli.do/INSII

3. Contributions proposed during the
GSP PA
- Maintaining and updating the GlobalSoilMap specifications,
- Contribution to writing and reviewing the GSP-P4
specifications, and ‘step by step’ procedures for gridded soil
information products developed under the GSP Pillar 4,
- Contributing to the development of new methods for
harmonization and calculations of uncertainties,
- Supporting outreach and capacity building, depending on
available resources,
- Promoting GSP Pillar 4 products and activities towards the
scientific community through reporting to the IUSS and
organizing scientific events.
Questions Sli.do/INSII

4. Proposed short-term actions 1/2
1. Update the Global Soil Map specifications
2. Contributing to writing and reviewing of the
specifications and step by step procedures for the
new thematic gridded products which are
developed under the framework of the present
GSP Pillar 4 priorities (e.g. salinity and erosion
threats, SOC sequestration potential),
3. Contributing to the development and
implementation of harmonization methods of nation-
wide grids and for calculations of uncertainties,
Questions Sli.do/INSII

5. Proposed short-term actions 2/2
4. Supporting capacity development and training
depending on available resources,
4. Promoting GSP Pillar 4 products and activities
towards the scientific community through
reporting to IUSS and organizing scientific events,
6. Contributing to the review of final products
delivered using top-down or bottom-up process.
Questions Sli.do/INSII

6. Proposed long-term actions 1/2
1. Regularly update the specifications, and consider the
inclusion of new soil properties, as required by the GSP P4
WG,
2. Contribute to writing step by step procedures (‘cook-books’)
for producing the fine grids of soil properties required by the
GSP,
3. Seek endorsement of nation-wide GlobalSoilMap
products by the appropriate GSP partner institution, so that
these products can be submitted to GSP as official national
contributions to GSP and GLOSIS, in an effort to avoid the
parallel development of similar products by different
organizations for the same country.
Questions Sli.do/INSII

7. Proposed long-term actions 1/2
4. Support outreach and capacity building, depending on
available resources,
5. Providing fully documented case studies of GlobalSoilMap
products as an example for other countries,
6. Develop and communicate guidelines for harmonizing
GlobalSoilMap products between countries,
7. Explore the development of functional soil maps and
derivative products from the primary soil grids to help a wide
range of stakeholders (planners, farmers, modelers, etc.),
8. Contributing to improve the training plan for countries
(see the proposals in annex)
Questions Sli.do/INSII

8. 1. Update the list of computer programs for DSM
with examples of new advanced techniques
2. Provide examples/guidelines on how to produce
gridded soil functional maps
3. Provide advices on how to evaluate the sources of
soil spatial variability, uncertainty, uncertainty
propagation, uncertainty reporting, communicating
uncertainty to data users
4. Methods of evaluating (“validating”) gridded
maps and reporting the results.
Examples of topics for which the IUSS GlobalSoilMap
WG could contribute in the long-term (1/2)
Questions Sli.do/INSII

9. Examples of conversion of analog products (e.g., paper maps)
to legacy digital products as covariates for DSM.
6. Examples on using SoilGrids layers as covariates for
country-based DSM.
7. Examples on merging global and country-based predictions
and/or examples of harmonization methods between
countries.
8. Examples on how to design and implement soil monitoring
systems, including the use of DSM maps, and testing on case
studies the added value of field and laboratory spectroscopy
with associated statistical analysis and use of spectral
libraries
Examples of topics for which the IUSS GlobalSoilMap
WG could contribute in the long-term (1/2)
Questions Sli.do/INSII

10. Thank You!
Questions
Sli.do/INSII