The 21st World Congress of Soil Science Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 12 - 17 August 2018

2. Global Soil Information System
Yusuf Yigini – GSP Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN

3. GSP Pillars of Action
1. Promote sustainable management of soil resources and improved global governance for soil
protection and sustainable productivity;
2. Encourage investment, technical cooperation, policy, education, awareness and extension
in soils;
3. Promote targeted soil research development focusing on identified gaps, priorities and
synergies among economic, environmental and social dimensions;
4. Enhance the quality and availability of soil data and information:
collection, analysis, validation, reporting, monitoring, integration with other
disciplines;
5. Harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators for the sustainable management
and protection of soil resources.

4. GSP - Pillar 4
Pillar 4 of the GSP essentially addresses the
development of an enduring and authoritative
global system to monitor and forecast the
condition of the Earth’s soil resources.
PILLAR 1
PILLAR 2
PILLAR 3
PILLAR 5

5. Pillar 4 - Governance
The International Network of Soil Information
Institutions (INSII) forms the backbone of Pillar
4. The INSII network is supported by a
technical working group of soil information
experts (Pillar 4 Working Group).

6. Pillar 4 Working Group
• Chair: Neil McKenzie , GSP Secretary: Ronald Vargas
• Coordination: Yusuf Yigini (GSP), Pillar 5 Chair: Rainer Baritz
• Soil Data Facility: Rik van den Bosch (ISRIC)
Africa: Christian Omuto
Asia: Toshiaki Ohkura
Europe: Edoardo Costantini
Eurasia: Laziza Gafurova
Central America: Renato J. Zúñiga
South America: Guillermo Federico
Olmedo
Near East and North Africa: Rachid
Moussadek
North America: Bert VandenBygaart
South West Pacific: Mike Grundy

7. Pillar 4 Implementation Plan
• Based on the endorsed
Plan of Action.
• Developed by P4WG/INSII
• Provides the guidance to
build the global soil
information system
(GloSIS).

8. Pillar 4 & GloSIS
➔One of the flagship initiatives of the Global Soil Partnership
➔Owned by the member countries
➔Federated architecture
➔Co-operative design, actively involving all stakeholders
➔Supports countries in developing their own soil data and
information systems.
➔Develop and improve capacities at national level
Global Soil Partnership and member countries building a Global Soil
Information System (GloSIS) relying on national capacities and
national soil information systems.

10. Data Products
SoilSTAT
Statistics component of the Global Soil Information System
(GLOSIS) and the tool for monitoring global soil resources. The
GSP and its partners will design SoilSTAT and the system will
be used for monitoring, forecasting and reporting periodically
on the status of global soil resources. The name of the system
mirrors the FAOSTAT family.
STATUS > concept note on the content and design.

11. Data Products
GloSIS
• Soil profile databases (Tiered Approach – T1 T2)
• Global polygon coverage, to replace FAO/UNESCO Soil
Map of the World (1:5M, 1971-1980)
• Global Grids:
• Harmonized World Soil Database, HWSD V2
• Fine-resolution grid of soil properties, V0
• Fine resolution grid of soil properties, V1

12. Data Products
Soil Profile Databases – Tiered Approach
Tier 1 and Tier 2 SPDB - Tier 1 (comprehensive, open) and
Tier 2 (controlled, representative);
Tier 2 may be a representative subset of Tier 1 in some
systems or could be a separate collection.
Status > Technical specifications (draft completed, July 2018, GSP – SDF)

13. Data Products
Global Polygon Coverage and HWSD V2
•GPC - This product suits users requiring an overview of global soil
geography. The polygon map consists of discrete map units with
accompanying soil classification as well as soil properties at the map unit
level.
•HWSD2 - The current HWSD is v1.2 , the result of a collaboration
between the FAO with IIASA, ISRIC-World Soil Information, Institute of Soil
Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISSCAS), and the Joint Research
Centre of the European Commission (JRC). New regional soil data and
information available for updating the Harmonized World Soil Database
(HWSD).
Status > under planning

14. Data Products
Fine Resolution Soil Grids
•V0 - The version 0 grid will be a collection of existing grids as a
demonstration of gridded products with no attempt to invest into
additional harmonization.

15. Data Products
Fine Resolution Soil Grids
V0 vs V1
• Not all the world is represented by national/regional contributions to the
v0 grid.
• The v0 grid is neither harmonized nor seamless.
• Unless P4WG will advise differently, there is no standard list of
properties nor of their methods of measurement; there is no standard
depth resolution.
• The Version 0 horizontal resolution (1km) is significantly coarse
compared to Version 1 (3x3 Arc-second, roughly 90 m).
Status > First V0 grid launched – Global Soil Organic Carbon GSOCmap