ISRIC - World Soil Information, also known as the International Soil Reference and Information Centre, is a science-based independent foundation. It was established in 1966, following a recommendation by the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS, now known as the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[1] ISRIC's role is to compile and disseminate information regarding soil resources globally, contributing to the understanding and resolution of key global issues.
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ISRIC responsibilities include gathering, compilation, and distribution of soil information at global, national, and regional levels. Its objectives are organized into four main areas: Setting Standards and References, Soil Information Provisioning, Capacity Building and Advocacy, and Development of Derived Products.[2] The organization's reference collection encompasses a range of materials, including country-specific reports, maps, and slides, as well as soil specimens (including monoliths, samples, thin sections, and hand specimens). A selection of ISRIC's soil monolith collection is on permanent display in the World Soil Museum.[3]
ISRIC is a regular member of the ISC World Data System, and is known as WDC-Soils since 1989.[4] ISRIC's main open access databases include WoSIS,[5] a large database of quality-assessed and standardised soil profile data for the world, that has been used for producing soil property maps at 250 m resolution, with quantified uncertainty,for the world using state-of-the-art machine learning (SoilGrids).[6] and many other applications.
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External links
Media related to International Soil Reference and Information Centre at Wikimedia Commons
- ISRIC World Soil Information website
- WDC-Soils (World Data Centre for Soils)
- Search and download ISRIC data sets
- Search/download data via WoSIS and SoilGrids portal
References
- ^ "International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) | Knowledge Hub". knowledge.unccd.int. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
- ^ ISRIC (2021). Annual report2020/2021, ISRIC - World Soil Information, Wageningen (NL) (PDF) (Report). p. 36.
- ^ "ISRIC - World Soil Museum (WSM)".
- ^ "ISRIC -World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils)".
- ^ Batjes, N.H.; Calisto, L.; de Sousa, D.M. (October 2024). "Providing quality-assessed and standardised soil data to support global mapping and modelling (WoSIS snapshot 2023)". Earth System Science Data. 16 (10): 4735–4765. Bibcode:2024ESSD...16.4735B. doi:10.5194/essd-16-4735-2024.
- ^ Poggio, Laura; de Sousa, L.M.; Batjes, N.H.; Heuvelink, G.B.M; Kempen, B.; Ribeiro, E.; Rossiter, D. (June 2021). "SoilGrids 2.0: producing soil information for the globe with quantified spatial uncertainty". SOIL. 7 (1): 217–410. Bibcode:2021SOIL....7..217P. doi:10.5194/soil-7-217-2021.