ELECTRONIC SOIL DATA STORAGE: possible approaches with an emphasis

on the Russian Soil Database

Pavel Krasilnikov Eurasian Center for Food Security

Alexander Ivanov Soil Science Faculty

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Eurasian Center for Food Security • ECFS founded as a response of

Russian Federation to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative

• The focal area for the ECFS – Central Asian region

• The activities include conducting and supporting research in land management and agricultural economy, education (including distant learning), and expertise

http://ecfs.msu.ru

Russian soil database: Institutions

• Dokuchaev (Russian) Soil Science Society • Faculty of Soil Science of Lomonosov

Moscow State University • Eurasian Center for Food Security of

Lomonosov Moscow State University • Participating Institutions, providing soil

data all over the country

Russian soil database

Attributive profile database of modified soil properties

Geographical database

Calculated parameters (statistical and model-based)

MAP SOURCES OF THE SGDB

Soil map of Russian Federation of the scale 1:2,500,000 edited by V.M. Fridland, 1988 (Corrected digital version, 2007).

The map of soil-ecologic regionalization of Russia of the scale 1:2,500,000 (2007).

The scheme of administrative division of Russia of the scale 1:1,000,000 (2007).

Thematic maps, schemes, cartographic models of various scales.

Attributive profile database

• Description of representative soil profiles •With optimal list of attributes of morphological structure, physical, and chemical properties, •With exact geographical coordinates or at least approximate location within a polygon of the Soil Map of Russian Federation (1:2,500,000) •Associated with the geographical block of the SGDB.

Russian soil database and related initiatives

• The development of a joint database of soil resources of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia - supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, 2011-2012)

• The development of soil databases of Central Asian Republics (Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan) – project by ECFS under development for 2012-2014

• Development of a joint database for Russian Federation and Kazakhstan – searching for funds yet

Definitions of data storage systems

• Actually the term “soil database” is used for a broad range of information resources differing in their aims, structure, content and functional abilities. The common feature of these resources is the presence of components containing soil data, and the electronic form of data storage

• The basic form of a database is a collection of point (profile) data, like NCSS Soil Characterization Data or WISE

• The other level is a soil-geographical database, which links soil attributes with a spatial unit (polygon)

The benefits of international electronic data storage system

• Compact storage • Availability for remote users • Easy data management • Possibility for export to GIS and other tools for

visualization • Relatively easy transformation to other format for

data sharing

The difficulties in data collection and electronic storage

• Political and juridical – Farm-level data are usually fee-based – Other data is often unavailable due to intellectual property issues – Certain “jealousy” for national databases exists

• Data deficiency – There are extensive areas with no or insufficient soil information – Many surveys have a limited number of soil parameters

• Data promiscuity – The list of soil attributes differ in different countries – In the same country there are differences in methods used by different institutions and in different periods

• Structural differences – The codification of data is different – The metadata part is insufficient for data understanding

Difficulties with data transfer

Visually accessible form:

symbol, graph data

Source Recipient

Visually accessible form:

symbol, graph data Electronic form

Transfer from visually accessible forms to the electronic form and the subsequent restoration from the electronic form to visually accessible inevitably leads to a partial loss of the data and distortion of the transferred information

1111001101010 1000111011110 1110100011010 0101111010000 1111111000000 1101001000111 0011110101000 0001011111101 1110001010001

Storage domain model WISE, SOTER, EURODB: Soil database as means

of storage and inventory of the soil data.

Relation table => object (plot=site=cut=profile, horizon) Attribute => soil indicator (indicator name) Cell => value indicator soil data (value name)

CNTY_DEF

PRJ_DEF

SOIL_DEF

GWL_DEF

LU_DEF

D_X_DEF

PLOT_STR

ORIG_DEF

PLOT_ID

CNTY_C

LOC_NAME

LON_COOR_V

LAT_COOR_V

PRJ_C

ALT_V

SOIL_C

SOIL_NAME

GWL_NM_V

GWL_NM_C

GWL_HI_C

GWL_LO

LU_NAME

LU_CLC_C

PM_NAME

D_ROO_V

D_ROC_C

D_ROO_X

D_ROC_X

D_OTH_C

D_OTH_X

ORIG_C

COMMENT

CNTY_C

CNTY_NAME

PRJ_C

PRJ_NAME

SOIL_C

SOIL_NAME

GWL_C

GWL_NAME

LU_CLC_C

LUCLC_NAME

D_X

D_NAME

PARA_C

PARA_UNIT

ORIG_C

ORIG_NAME

HOR_STR

HOR DATCNTY_DEF PLOT DAT

PRJ_DEF

SOIL_DEF

GWL_DEF

LU_DEF

D_X_DEF

ORIG_DEF

PLOT_STR

GRAV_DEF

STRU_DEF

METH_DEF

SARX_DEF

PLOT_ID

HOR_ID

HOR_NAME

CNTY_C

HOR_BEG_V

CLAY_V

HOR_END_V

CLAY_ESD

SILT1_V

SILT1_ESD

SILT2_V

SILT2_ESD

SAND1_V

SAND1_ESD

SAND2_V

SAND2_ESD

SAND3_V

SAND3_ESD

GRAV_C

STRUCT_C

OC_V

OC_M

OM_V

OM_M

N_V

N_M

CACO3_V

CACO3_M

CACO4_V

CACO4_M

PH_M

PH_V

EC_V

EC_M

SAR_V

ESP_V

EXC_CA_V

EXC_CA_M

EXC_MG_V

EXC_MG_M

EXC_CAMG_V

EXC_CAMG_M

EXC_K_V

EXC_K_M

EXC_NA_V

EXC_NA_M

CEC_V

CEC_M

BS_V

BS_M

WC1_V

WC1_KPA

WC2_V

WC2_KPA

WC3_V

WC3_KPA

WC4_V

WC4_KPA

WCFC_V

WCFC_KPA

POR_V

POR_M

BD_V

BD_M

GRAV_C

GRAV_NAME

METH_C

METH_NAME

STRU_C

STRU_NAME

SAR_X SAR_X

SAR_NAME

PARA_FORM

PARA_NAME

PARA_TYPE

PARA_C

PARA_UNIT

PARA_FORM

PARA_NAME

PARA_TYPE

HOR_DEF

GRAV_DEF

STRU_DEF

SARX_DEF

METH_DEF

Disadvantages of the common domain model

• Diversity of the lists of indicators • Structural limitation of list representation of indicators and values of indicators of soil properties. • Problem of recording the “history” of indicator values (whether they are products of direct experimental measurements, or secondary, i.e. derived by pedotransfer functions)

Semantic domain model The object o is characterized by the value v of the indicator i determined with the method m Where: o – the object name, v – the name of value of the indicator, i – the indicator name, m – the name of a method of definition of value of an indicator

The database concept

• Soil object - an associative array of indexed indicators of of soil properties.

• The soil profile - a tree of associated arrays of indicators of soil properties in the space of soil objects:

S=SUmin[xID,IndicatorID,ObjectID,ValueID,MethodID]

• http://open.soil.msu.ru • http://db.soil.msu.ru

Subject area and electronic storage

The formalized description of subject domain

Storehouse of soil data

IndicatorID

ObjectID

MethodID

ValueID

The Tree of Soil

Objects

The Set of Names of Values

The Set of Names

of Methods

The Set of Names

of Indicators

Verbal language of soil science

Objects

The Tree of Soil

Objects

Soil object - a named element of the hierarchy or structure of the soil, which is characterized by any indicator as a homogeneous part of a soil body.

LevelID=0 LevelID=1 LevelID=2 LevelID=3 ObjectTypeID=C Soil site ObjectTypeID=P Profile ObjectTypeID=H Horizon ObjectTypeID=L Layer ObjectTypeID=M Morphon ObjectTypeID=E Morphological element ObjectTypeID=S Sample

Database scheme

Perspectives • Improving the structure and design of the

database • Filling the database with real soil data • Future geographic extension of the

database • Developing data sharing format; data

sharing with EuroDB (HWSD) is a priority • Forming a joint soil information space from

Lisbon to Vladivostok

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION