Soil Datasets > Data > External Soil Data > Global Data
This section provides links to websites from where soil related datasets at Global Scale could potentially be accessed and/or downloaded. According to INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) principles, public users should be provided with easy access to datasets at European, National, Regional and local level. In this spirit, European Soil Data Center (ESDAC) identifies relevant data sets in the World and the modalities for accessing them. See also the National Data and the Regional Data.
Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD)
Harmonized World Soil Database(HWSD): The Harmonized World Soil Database is a 30 arc-second raster database with over 15000 different soil mapping units that combines existing regional and national updates of soil information worldwide (European Soil Database, SOTER, Soil Map of China, WISE) with the information contained within the 1:5 000 000 scale FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World (FAO, 19711981). Download the HWSD Data
(Feb 2012) Harmonized World Soil Database Version 1.2. Version 1.2 now contains SOTER/SOTWIS data for Tunisia and adds fields for the bulk densities reported by the source datasets (WISE/SOTWIS/ESDB) in addition to the reference bulk densities that have always been available in the HWSD. Find attached the documentation.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
WRB Map of World Soil Resources: In 1990 a Map of World Soil Resources was completed at scale 1:25.000.000, generalized from the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map or the World at scale 1:5.000.000 (FAO, 1971 - 1981). The map was issued on the occasion of the 14th International Congress of Soil Science held in Kyoto, Japan in 1990. Since then new material has become available, the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World has been partly updated under the SOTER Programme and the FAO legend has been replaced by the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). In 1998 the latter was adopted by the International Union of Soil Sciences as the standard for soil correlation and nomenclature. In the light of these new developments it was decided to prepare an updated version of the generalized Map of the World Soil Resources at 1:25.000.000.
Soils and Maps: On this section you may find a list of useful maps on land and soils issues such as land cover, land use systems, problem soils and dominant soils, developed by FAO.
Other Global Datasets
- GLOBAL soil datasets: available from the US ORNL Distributed Active Archive Center (THREDDS Data Server Catalog Service) containing ANNUAL SOIL RESPIRATION DATA, PLANT-EXTRACTABLE WATER CAPACITY OF SOIL, GRIDDED SURFACES OF SELECTED SOIL CHARACTERISTICS, ORGANIC SOIL CARBON AND NITROGEN, SOIL PROFILE DATA, SOIL TEXTURE AND DERIVED WATER-HOLDING CAPACITIES, SOIL TEXTURE AND DERIVED WATER-HOLDING CAPACITIES, SOIL TYPES (0.5-DEGREE GRID), SOIL TYPES (1-DEGREE GRID), DERIVED SOIL PROPERTIES (0.5-DEGREE GRID).
- Global and Regional datasets, (co)developed by ISRIC. ISRIC Soil Information System, WISE international soil profile data set, World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), Global Assessment of Human-induced Soil Degradation (GLASOD) , Soil and terrain database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SOTERLAC, ver. 2.0) , SOTER-based soil parameter estimates for Latin America and the Caribbean (scale 1:5 M), Soil and terrain database for Central and Eastern Europe (SOVEUR, ver1.1 , scale 1:2.5 M)............
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