ABSTRACT
Procedures and methodologies to produce this information vary depending on the types and amount of available data and expertise, but all information meet a specific set of standards by the GlobalSoilMap specifications (GlobalSoilMap, 2015). These specifications are the only specifications for a global soil information system to be derived using a consensus-based process. They have been recently endorsed by the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) Global Soil Partnership initiative as the specifications to follow in order to deliver a fine grid of soil properties. The GlobalSoilMap specifications do not prescribe the methods for generating the soil property predictions, because of diverse soil legacy data sources from various countries. A flow chart outlines the different approaches that can be applied to satisfy the specifications (Minasny & McBratney, 2010). Of particular importance to
1 INTRODUCTION
Unprecedented demands are being placed on the world’s soil resources (Hartemink & McBratney, 2008; Amundson et al. 2015; Montanarella et al. 2016). Indeed, the demand for global information on functional soil properties is high and has increased over time. Responding to these challenging demands requires relevant, reliable and applicable information (Koch et al. 2013). The GlobalSoilMap consortium was established in response to such a soaring demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information (Sanchez et al. 2009; Arrouays et al. 2014). The majority of the data needed to produce GlobalSoilMap soil property maps will, at least for the first generation, come mainly from archived soil legacy data, which could include polygon soil maps and point pedon data (Arrouays et al. 2017a), and from available co-variates such as climatic data, remote sensing information, geological data, and other forms of environmental information. The predictions and estimations are generated using
these specifications is the estimation of uncertainty which is also a major challenge of this project.
