A new open access paper from ISRIC – World Soil Information is now available: “Global mapping of volumetric water retention at 100, 330 and 15,000 cm suction using the WoSIS database” published in International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

The work presented in the paper developed point-based global maps with estimated uncertainty of the volumetric soil water retention (SWR) at 100, 330 and 15,000 cm suction using measured and estimated SWR data and compared them with similar available products from the literature.

At ISRIC – World Soil Information, the last two years have been unusual. Like everyone, we have experienced unprecedented changes in our working environment as we shifted to working from home during the coronavirus. At the same time, our staff has grown and we’ve taken on new and different types of projects. We’ve expanded our portfolio in the areas of global soil information provisioning, sustainable land management decision making and capacity building.

At the 2022 World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow, Scotland (31 July  - 4 Aug), there are many places you will be able to find ISRIC – World Soil Information. Please stop by our exhibit booth any day of the conference, located in the exhibition hall (Hall 4), and look for ISRIC people on the scientific sessions schedule.

Browse below to see when and where ISRIC staff will make presentations at the conference. We hope to see you there!

ISRIC – World Soil Information is seeking experts who can assist with the soil sampling for 2 countries in Europe: Poland and Italy. This work is part of the Horizon 2020 InnoVar project, next-generation plant variety testing for improved cropping on European farmland. InnoVar is a cooperation between 21 partners led by the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) from Belfast.

In June 2022, a new release of the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS) is available from ISRIC – World Soil Information. WoSIS is a compilation of cleansed and standardised soil profile data for the world that is free and open access.

From May 9-20, 2022, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) took place in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Nearly 7,000 participants attended the gathering included delegations from 196 countries.

As of 1 June, the special professorship in Pedometrics and Digital Soil Mapping at Wageningen University was renewed for five more years. The position is funded by ISRIC and positioned within the university's Soil Geography and Landscape Group.

Eating soil is an old and established culturally important practice in many places around the world. In many countries, the action of eating earth and soil-like substances (geophagy) is a means of spiritual cleansing, amongst other benefits. There are even restaurants that serve soil as food. Will soil consumption become more widely accepted or even develop into a ‘superfood’ practice? What would be the implications of this?

On May 20, 2022, the 9th edition of ISRIC’s Spring School was completed, offering a five-day course on Hands-on Digital Soil Mapping. The online course attracted 44 participants from 21 countries.

In a recent issue of the journal Agriculture for Development, ISRIC – World Soil Information guest researcher David G. Rossiter published the article “Soil mapping today: computer-generated predictive soil maps – their role in soil survey and land evaluation.”