The CSIRO has joined with other scientific bodies from around the globe to help create a worldwide digital soil map.
The CSIRO joins a global consortium that aims to make a new free, 3D digital soil map of the world using state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for soil mapping and predicting soil properties at fine resolution.
This new global soil map will be supplemented by interpretation and functionality options that aim to assist better decisions in a range of global issues like food production and hunger eradication, climate change, and environmental degradation.
The free online resource is being developed by eight globally-distributed research nodes, and is coordinated through ISRIC–World Soil Information, an independent foundation based at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. It is supported globally by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and locally by CSIRO, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, the University of Sydney and the Australian Research Council.
Leading the Oceania Node is CSIRO soil scientist Dr Neil McKenzie. The Oceania node is a partnership involving science and environmental agencies from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and The Pacific Islands so far.
The project – available at http://globalsoilmap.net/ – is an initiative of the Digital Soil Mapping Working Group of the International Union of Soil Sciences.
