Soil Data Harmonization to Create a Global Soil Data Platform

The management of our soils plays a crucial role in addressing some of our greatest challenges, such as food security and climate change. Working together across national borders is essential for securing the health and quality of our soil in the future. With multi-stakeholder processes, language and the use of language is very important since the capability of understanding each other is critical. Developing a common language facilitates learning together, trust-building, defining common viewpoints, resolving disagreements, and arriving at technically sound and practical solutions.  

This document represents the initial attempt to create a common soil domain ontology and data model to support the creation of a user-friendly infrastructure in accordance with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles for uploading, managing, and providing comparable soil data at global scale. To meet these requirements, the review and application of accepted and widely used standards, conventions, and guidelines for the ingestion, organization, and sharing of soil data is necessary. The document should be regarded as a living document that evolves along with the progress of the project and in response to stakeholder feedback.  

This project began with the development of an ontology for the soil domain and the identification of representational terms. This was done by following a data-driven approach, which allowed the determination of relevant entities by making strategic decisions based on data analysis and organization, while facilitating a modular expansion of the knowledge base. Next, a standardized soil vocabulary was defined to facilitate data sharing and discovery. 

Furthermore, soil analytical information is collected and modelled across a variety of data sources, as well as SI units and non-SI units accepted for use with the International System of Units. Finally, a list of relevant conversion factors, regressions, and pedotransfer functions was collected to facilitate data comparison across different data bases.