WISE - Cooperating institutions and experts

Main contributors of profile data and expertise to the inital WISE project (1991-1995) were the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS-NRCS), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), as well as wide range of national soil survey organizations.

Spatial data for WISE ver. 1.0, at a resolution of 0.5 x 0.5 degrees, was derived from the 1:5 000 000 scale Soil Map of the World published by the (former) AGLS Division at FAO. For later versions, the spatial data for WISE were derived form the Harmonised World Soil Database (HWSD).

Special thanks are due to: Freddy Nachtergaele, FAO-AGL, Rome; John Kimble, National Soil Survey (SCS-NRCS), Lincoln, Harry Eswaran H, World Soil Resources (SCS-NRCS), Washington, USA; ISRIC colleagues -- Mike (EM) Bridges, Koos Dijkshoorn, Sjef Kauffman, and Otto Spaargaren for their contributions to the intitial WISE project. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the contributions of many enthusiastic soil experts worldwide (not listed in any particular order):

Dubali A, Instituti I Studimit Te Tokave, Tirana, Albania; Salazar Leaplaza JC, INTA, Centro de Investigaciones de Recursos Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Swift R, Head, Division of Soils, CSIRO, Adelaide and Murtha G, Division of Soils, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia; Moganane BG, Soil Survey Section, Ministry of Agriculture, Gaborone, Botswana; Cerri CEP and Bernoux M, CENA-University of Sao Paolo, Brazil; Tarnocai C and Shields JA, Centre for Land Resources Research, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Jones PG and Castro DM, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Cali, Colombia; Breuning-Madsen H, Geografisk Institut, Kobenhavn Universitet, Denmark; Abdel Rahman S, Department of Soils and Water Use, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt; Urvas L, Institute of Soils and Environment, Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Jokionen, Finland; Eckelmann W, Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover and Hartmann KJ, Elberswalde-Finow, Germany; Varallyay G, Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Budapest, Hungary; Diamond S, Soils and Environmental Research and Development Centre, Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland; Magaldi D, Departimento Scienza del Suolo, Firenze, Italy;  Duwayri M, National Centre for Agricultural Research, Beqaa and Rihani A, National Map and Land Use Project, Amman, Jordan; Gicheru P, Kenya Soil Survey, Nairobi, Kenya; Finke PA, SC-DLO, Wageningen, The Netherlands; Hewitt A, Landcare Research, Dunedin, New Zealand; Okoye EGU, Department of Agricultural Land Resources, Abuja, Nigeria; Marcinek J, Polish Society of Soil Science, Warsaw and Oldak A, University of Warsaw, Poland; Ricardo RP, Centro de Estudos de Pedologia, Lisbon, Portugal;  Paterson DG, Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa; Rauta C, Research Institute for Soil Science and Soil Fertility, Bucarest, Romania; Gauld J, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland; Ibanez JJ, Centro de Ciencas Medioambientales, Madrid, Spain; Eriksson J, Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden; Mugogo SE, Agricultural Research Institute Mlingano, Tanga, Tanzania; Senol S, Department of Soil Science, University of Cukurova, Adana, Turkey; Molfino JH Direccion de Suelos y Aguas, Ministerio de Ganaderia Agricultura y Pesca, Montevideo, Uruguay; Jones RJA, Soil Survey and Land Research Centre, Silsoe, England; Jennifer Harden (Scientist Emeritus, U.S. Geological Survey);  Gustaf Hugelius (Stockholm University, Sweden); as well as the International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN) .

Finally, but not least, we thank the wide range of national experts who have collated profile data for SOTER and other databases that have been incorporated in WISE and subsequently the WoSIS effort.

Sincere aplogies if we have ommitted to list your particular contribution to this global effort.

The following institutions provided financial and/or in-kind support:

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy (1991-1995): Provision of soil profile data and development of spatial data set (0.5 arc deg.) derived from the 1995 version of the Digital Soil Map of the World; development of pedotransfer functions (ISRIC-FAO-IIASA, 1996-1997), as later adapted in support the HWSD-project (2007-present).

• Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Lincoln, USA (1991-1994): Provision of soil profile data.

• Partners of the Global Environment Facility co-funded projects on soil carbon stocks and changes (GEF-SOC (2002-2005); GEF-CBP (2009-2012))

• International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN, 2014-present); sharing of soil profile data.

• Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change (NRP Project 851039; 1991-1994), funding agency

• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg,  Austria (1996-1997), methodology development (taxotransfer rules)

• Global Soil Data Task Force (IGBP-DIS; 1991-1994), international collaboration

• International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC, USA (2001), funding agency.