ISRIC Staff Information

Niels Batjes is Scientific Officer with ISRIC’s Research and Development Department and has over 20 years experience in the methodological development of land resources information systems (LRIS) and their use for a wide range of environmental assessments (see recent publications). He served as Acting Head  of the World Data Center for Soils from Sep. 2006 to Jan. 2007, and from  May to Oct. 2007.

Niels has coordinated and contributed to a wide range of national and international projects/activities:

• e-SOTER - Contributes to WP2 of the EU FP7-financed e-SOTER project  (2008-2012)
• Harmonized World Soil Database - Provided SOTER and WISE-related inputs for the Harmonized World Soil Database, a project coordinated by FAO and IIASA  (2007-2008)   
• World Data Center for Soils; management and coordination of the documentation and digitalization of ISRIC’s WDC holdings to make them available through the world-wide web  (more ...) ; established linkages with the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Portal for the World Data Center System  (2006 - 2007)    more ...
• UNEP Global Environmental Outlook (GEO4); Chapter 3 - Land, contributing author (2006-2007)
• UNEP Global Deserts Outlook; Chapter 3 - Deserts and the planet, contributing author (2005-2006) 
• GeoPortal project, contributed to Working Package 2 with special attention for increasing access to ISRIC's international soil data holdings (2005-2006)
• Harmonized, continental scale, SOTER-derived database; contributing scientist (2005) 
• Assessment of Soil Carbon Stocks and Change at National Scale; contributing scientist and member of Scientific Steering Committee (GEF co-financed project GFL/2740-02-4381; 2002-2005)  
• Chairman of ISRIC's Editorial Group, having an added responsibility for the ISRIC website steering (2004-present)  
• WISE soil database; project management, methodology development, and database applications in support of global and continental scale environmental modelling; principal scientist and project coordinator (1997-present )
• Global assessment of gaseous emissions of NH3, NO and N2O from agricultural lands, a study coordinated by RIVM; contributing author (2000-2001)
• Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems (PAGE) of the World Resources Institute and the International Food Policy Reseach Institute; contributing author (1999-2000)
• Soil management options to sequester carbon and mitigate the greenhouse effect, Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change (NRP) Project 952282; principal scientist  (1998-1999) 
• Soil parameter estimates for the soil types of the world for environmental modelling; various projects with FAO and IIASA (1997), IFPRI (2001), and RIVM (1997-2005) using the WISE database; principal scientist 
• Mapping of Soil and Terrain Vulnerability in Central and Eastern Europe, a FAO-financed project (GCP/RER/007/NET); International Project Coordinator (1997-2000) 
• Ethno-pedological studies in Ghana, Peru and the Philippines (ILEIA) project; 1995-1997); contributing scientist
• Global Environmental Outlook 1 (GEO-1); scientific and analytical inputs (1995-1996)
• World Inventory of Soil Emission Potentials (WISE), an NRP-funded project aimed at a better quantification of soil factors that control processes of global change;  project scientist (1991-1996)
• Mapping the vulnerability of European soils to chemical pollution Vulnerability, a project sponsored by VROM and IIASA;  responsible for organizing an international, pre-feasibility worksop (1991) 
• World Soils and Terrain (SOTER) Database program; contributing scientist with special attention for  pedotransfer function development and database applications, in particular soil carbon stocks and changes at national scale (1991-present)

Niels served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Netherlands Society of Soil Science (NBV; 1999 - 2002) and has been a member of the Organising Committee of several international workshops co-organized by ISRIC (e.g. NASREC, SCALING, SOVEUR). He is a regular reviewer of papers submitted to various primary international Journals, and has been invited to carry out peer-reviews of several international research proposals. As Chairman of ISRIC's Editorial Group, he has an added responsibility for the ISRIC website steering.   

Prior to joining ISRIC, in 1990, Niels carried out soil surveys and fertilizer trials in Kenya (1980-1981). From 1984 to 1989, he worked as a Land Evaluation Expert for DGIS in Jamaica, with special responsibility for developing and applying the computerized Jamaica Physical Land Evaluation System (JAMPLES). 

Niels holds the  'doctoraal' (Ir) degree in Tropical Soil Science from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.