Agricultural Data Interest Group (IGAD) Pre-Meeting Agenda Research Data Alliance 21st to 22nd September 2015 INRA, Paris (France)

1. AGRICULTURAL SOILS RESEARCH DATA
IN TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA;
POLICIES, COLLABORATION AND
SHARING
Sustainable Land Use & Information Management, DPIPWE

2. Agricultural Soil (research) Data – mainly spatial – maps,
reports, geo-referenced chemical data, physical data,
morphological data, archived physical samples
Custodians: Department of Primary Industries, Parks Water
and Environment, Tasmania (DPIPWE)
Sustainable Land Use and Information Management Section
ROLE OF STATE GOVERNMENT
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3. • Soil Mapping
• Land Capability Mapping
• Land Suitability Mapping
• Land Use Mapping
• Soil Condition Monitoring
• Vulnerable Soils Mapping
• Research Trials
(production and protection)
A main focus……..
Providing Spatial Data for
Use in Agricultural or
Environmental Research
(Modelling)
CONTEXT - TASKS
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4. SOIL DATA COLLECTION AND STORAGE STANDARDS
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• Soil Data Collected and applied to National Standards and Guidelines (Linkages
with FAO, but adapted to Australia’s unique soils and terrain)
• Nationally Consistent Database Format (PC_SITES)
• NATA Accredited Laboratories and analyses
• Ensures interoperability
We are now encouraging other organisations to have all soil agricultural research
data collected to these standards in Tasmania, geo-referenced, and uploaded
digitally to our soil database, as part of the Natural Values Atlas of Tasmania, and
make publically available as part of open data policy.
e.g. Universities, consultants, Forestry, NRM Regional Projects and Collaborators

5. SOIL DATABASE
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New Soils Database – integrated with other natural values datasets
Publically accessible – downloadable soil data
Structure compatible with CSIRO Land & Water – ASRIS soils data

6. Using new database as a ‘carrot’ to encourage
use of standards and correct formats, and as
data storage and retrieval facility
Other agencies, consultants and Universities get the benefit of using other
data, storing data, and being able to extract it when needed in a useable
and error-checked format
DPIPWE gets the benefit of obtaining data (with some restrictions), and
having it collected in a useable format, and integrated into digital soil and
land suitability models
Promotes data sharing and better use of resources
SOILS DATABASE INTEROPERABILITY AND SHARING
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7. STANDARDS AND COLLABORATION
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ASRIS Standards for
spatial soil data
Download and Viewing
Portal
ACLEP – Australian Collaborative Land Evaluation Program – support,
advice, funding, standards and consistency across the country
Linkage between Federal Government and States
Overseen by NCST (National Representative Committee), CSIRO

8. SPATIAL DATA DELIVERY - TASMANIA
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www.thelist.tas.gov.au
Viewing, Overlay, Download of Spatial (Open) Data
Under Creative Commons

9. Commonality
• Technically open – discoverable, different formats, including machine readable
• Legally open – limited restriction on use, easy to understand what the restrictions are
For Land Tasmania – free
• Foundation Datasets - Address, Cadastre, Coastline, Contours,
Hydrography, Points of Interest, Survey Control, Digital Elevation Model,
Transport
• Administrative – locality, suburb, LGA’s
• Reserves – WHA, state parks and reserves, LGA reserves
• Spatial Soils Data – Maps and Point Source Profile Information
• Easy access via awarded LIST infrastructure
• Minimal restriction on use
• Land Tasmania spatial data free
SPATIAL DATA - LISTMAP
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2014 Technical Excellence Award

10. ACCESSING LAND TASMANIA’S OPEN DATA
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• Creative Commons
• Limited restriction & easily
understood
• Always protects copyright
www.thelist.tas.gov.au
• Multiple access points, formats
• LISTdata – central discovery
portal
- data.thelist.tas.gov.au
-
data.thelist.tas.gov.au/opendata/
Metadata: Built over GeoNetwork
• LISTmap – clip & ship
- maps.thelist.tas.gov.au
• LISTservices – web services
- services.thelist.tas.gov.au

11. GEONETWORK
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Soil MetaData

12. • State-wide mapping, at 80m resolution (3 arc-second) – soil Attribute Surfaces
• Created using Digital Soil Mapping
• Standard Properties, Measurement Units, Depths, Resolution, Projections and Grid System
• 218 Gridded Maps – Predicted Values with 90% Confident Limits of Upper and Lower Prediction Limits
(Uncertainties)
• Contributed to TERN (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia)
DIGITAL SOIL MAPPING
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13. GLOBALSOILMAP
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Conforms and Contributes to GlobalSoilMap (GlobalSoilMap.net)

14. SPECIFICATIONS…..
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15. Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and
Environment (DPIPWE)
AGRICULTURAL SOIL RESEARCH - TASMANIA
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16. University Of Tasmania
AGRICULTURAL SOIL RESEARCH - TASMANIA
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Partnership formed
between DPIPWE and
the University of
Tasmania
Linking Government
and University
Agricultural Soil
Research Data
=
+

17. Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)
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AGRICULTURAL SOIL RESEARCH - TASMANIA
Undertake and Applying Soil Research to help and maximise
productivity, investment and returns on agriculture in Tasmania

18. Undertaking soil research data ‘trawl’ – ID appropriately
formatted soil data, digitize, standardize and classify into
appropriate (standard) formats e.eg. TIA agricultural research
trials (soil data components)
Part of soil legacy data project – identifying other sources of
soil data to capture and store
To date, a further 18,000 geo-referenced soil profiles have
been located, and are being harmonised and digitsied…..
(Present database holds ~ 6,500 sites!)
DATA CAPTURE
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19. AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL LINKAGE (ARC) PROJECTS
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Linking University
Research with Industry
DPIPWE – University
of Sydney Linkage
Project – Digital Soil
Mapping for Enterprise
Suitability Assessment
Transferred knowledge
to DPIPWE,
transformed
quantitative generation
of spatial soil research
information
Integrating Soil
research with industry

20. Hopefully – some relevant examples from Tasmania
TIA - Good model – collaboration between government and university –
soil research data, collection, provision, use and application
ACLEP – Soil Data collection, storage and reporting standards
Good set of standards applied in Tasmania – being more widely adopted
by industry and other agencies when collecting soil data (soils database)
Increasingly more publically available (DPIPWE policy – no charge for data
– freely available)
ARC – Linkage – another mechanism to link universities with industry and
State agencies – applied research
CONCLUSIONS
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21. THANK YOU
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Thank You………