Assessment of the status of human-induced soil degradation in south and Southeast Asia (ASSOD)

The GLASOD project (1987-1990), carried out for UNEP, has produced a world map of human-induced soil degradation. Data were compiled in cooperation with a large number of soil scientists throughout the world, using uniform Guidelines and international correlation. The status of soil degradation was mapped within loosely defined physiographic units (polygons), based on expert judgement. The type, extent, degree, rate and main causes of degradation have been printed on a global map, at a scale of 1:10 million, and documented in a downloadable database. Information about the areal extent of human-induced soil degradation can be found in an explanatory note.

Soil information, from the global to the local scale, has often been the one missing biophysical information layer, the absence of which has added to the uncertainties of predicting potentials and constraints for food and fiber production. The lack of reliable and harmonized soil data has considerably hampered land degradation assessments, environmental impact studies and adapted sustainable land management interventions. Recognizing the urgent need for improved soil information worldwide, particularly in the context of the Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol for soil carbon measurements and the immediate requirement for the FAO/IIASA Global Agro-ecological Assessment study (GAEZ v3.0), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) took the initiativeof combining the recently collected vast volumes of regional and national updates of soil information with the information already contained within the 1:5,000,000 scale FAOUNESCO Digital Soil Map of the World, into a new comprehensive Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD). This database was achieved in partnership with: • ISRIC-World Soil Information together with FAO, which were responsible for the development of regional soil and terrain databases and the WISE soil profile database; • the European Soil Bureau Network, which had recently completed a major update of soil information for Europe and northern Eurasia, and • the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences which provided the recent 1:1,000,000 scale Soil Map of China.

The Soil and Terrain database for China primary data (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million (SOTER_China), was compiled of enhanced soil information within the framework of the FAO's program of Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA). The primary database was compiled using the SOTER methodology. The SOTER unit delineation was based on a raster format of the soil map of China, correlated and converted to FAO’s Revised Legend (1988), in combination with a SOTER landform characterization derived from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) 90 m digital elevation model (DEM). Reference profiles for the dominant soil of the SOTER units has been directly linked to the polygons. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts.

The Soil and Terrain database for South Africa primary data (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million (SOTER_South_Africa), was compiled of enhanced soil information within the framework of the FAO's program Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA). Primary soil and terrain data for South Africa were obtained from the SOTERSAF database (ver. 1) at scale 1:2 million. This version of SOTER_South_Africa includes some changes in the GIS file, based on the SRTM-DEM derived data and a changes of the attributes database. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts.

The Soil and Terrain database for Malawi (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million, was compiled based on the soil map of Malawi at scale 1:250,000 (compiled by the Land Resources Evaluation Project) that was complemented with soil boundary information from the provisional soil map at scale 1:1 million. The 90m SRTM-DEM was used to define the various landform types of the SOTER units and also to adjust their boundaries. The SOTER map units were attributed with soil information obtained from the Africa Soil Profiles Database. The SOTER compilation followed the methodology described in the SOTER Procedures Manual Version 2. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts. DOI for dataset (submitted): 10.17027/isric.wdcsoils.20160002

Model outputs were updated on Dec 20, 2017. This project used a machine learning data-driven model to predict the distribution of soil carbon under mangrove forests globally. Specifically this dataset contains: 1) a compilation of georeferenced and harmonized soil profile data under mangroves compiled from literature, reports and unpublished contributions 2) global mosaics of soil carbon stocks to 1m and 2m depths produced at 100 m resolution 3) tiled predictions of soil carbon stocks produced at 30 m resolution 4) shape file containing the tiling system 5) shape file containing country boundaries used for calculating national level statistics. For detailed methodologies, please see the scientific paper (https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aabe1c).