On 6 March 2018, Marcos Angelini successfully defended his PhD-thesis "Structural Equation Modelling for Digital Soil Mapping" (SEM) at Wageningen University. The thesis makes valuable extensions to the basic SEM approach. It extends the modelling and prediction to three-dimensional digital soil mapping using SEM, incorporates model suggestions in a re-specification step, takes a close look at how SEM reproduces covariation between soil properties, explores the extrapolation potential of SEM, and improves SEM predictions by taking a geostatistical approach and kriging SEM residuals.

Mapping Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management is needed for policy makers to make good decision about how and where to make interventions in Sustainable Land Management (SLM). In the context of the World Bank-funded project Land Use Planning for Enhanced Resilience of Landscapes (LAUREL) in Madagascar, a mapping workshop took place from 12-16 February in Antananarivo, with the objective to obtain a national spatial overview of Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management.

ISRIC – World Soil Information successfully provided a one-week training course in digital soil mapping in Vijayawada, India (27 November – 1 December 2017). Seventeen professionals in land resources management from universities, research institutes and government agencies from three Indian states participated.

On 17 and 18 November 2017 a successful kick-off meeting was organized by INRA in Paris. CIRCASA stands for Coordination of International Research Cooperation on soil Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture and is funded by the EU H2020 programme (Societal Challenge 2). CIRCASA has 23 partner organizations from all continents. The overarching goal of CIRCASA is to develop international synergies concerning research and knowledge exchange in the field of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils at European Union and global levels with active engagement of all relevant stakeholders.

This year’s World Soil Day is devoted to the topical research needs for soil and land use. ISRIC director Rik van den Bosch will attend the SOPHIE side event at INSPIRATION in Brussels (Dec. 6, 2017). During this side event participants will discuss the way forward concerning access to reliable soil hydrophysical data with a view to reach commitment on harmonisation, standardisation and innovation. The ultimate objective is to set up international collaboration on soil hydrophysical data.

The council of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) has accepted ISRIC as Alliance Partner. The GRA brings governments, research institutions and other organisations together to find ways to grow more food (and more climate-resilient food systems) without growing greenhouse gas emissions.

Have you ever wondered what soil tastes like? The World Soil Museum, hosted by the international soil institute ISRIC World Soil Information, has a collection of 1,200 soil profiles. Stephan Mantel, the museum's curator, sat down with artist Masha Ru to ‘taste’ a tropical soil from ISRIC's collection. ‘I had stomach ache for a week after,’ he says, laughing. Soil is clearly not to Mantel's taste. ‘It's not that it’s disgusting, but it's not tasty, either.’

Open Soil Science technology is helping us discover the mysteries under our feet. A group of researchers working on Open Soil Science data and technology met recently at ISRIC in Wageningen, the Netherlands, to discuss current and future developments in citizen soil science.

ISRIC is attending the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ordos , Inner Mongolia, China.

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Do you know a SOIL Champion?

Nominations for the 2017 Glinka World Soil Prize now open!