Welcome to ISRIC World Soil Information

ISRIC - World Soil Information is an independent foundation and the ICSU accredited World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils). It was founded in 1964 through the International Soil Science Society (ISSS) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It has a mandate to serve the international community with information about the world’s soil resources to help addressing major global issues.

ISRIC operates on three priority areas:

  • soil data and soil mapping
  • application of soil data in global development issues
  • training and education

Current themes

ISRIC develops a range of web-based digital soil maps, for scientists, policy makers and land users

Forty soil profiles are now on show at the temporary World Soil Museum location in the Gaia building. Visitors can learn about the main soil types in the Netherlands and get an impression of the enormous variation of soils in the world.

Do you need soil information of Amsterdam, Zimbabwe, Asia or the whole world? ISRIC’s library has built up a collection of around 8000 (digitized) maps and 15.000 reports and books.

Global Issues

Combatting land degradation

Isric’s projects aim to combat land degradation and desertification.

Mitigating climate change

Land management practices can help to reduce net atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations

Biodiversity conservation

Reversing land degradation protects biodiversity.

Recent publications

Development of global soil information facilities. Data Science Journal    more...

All publications