Securing Our Soil Data, Information and Knowledge – the Key to Soil Security.

Our greatest natural asset is the soil. We live from and on the soil, but not usually in it. Soil is often forgotten because of the lack of visibility of this fundamental resource. Our second greatest asset is the data, information and knowledge which we have about our soil. What it is like, how it functions, what services it provides, how it changes and is impacted by our use and management. Well managed, accessible and useable soil data and information is essential for soil security. Soil scientists need to promote that our greatest asset, besides the soil itself, is the data, information and knowledge that we have about our soil, its capability and condition. Through this data we can make connection to the ecosystem services which support human life, we can quantify the cost of the natural capital we use and the services we rely on and change, and we can monitor and assess the legislative codes of management that our policy mechanism instigate to ensure the ongoing use and sustainability of our soil. SoilML (Wilson et al, and ISO 28258, and IUSS WGSIS) is a conceptual model of our soil and how we sample, analyse and describe it. It identifies the real world soil ‘features’ that we as soil scientists recognise and study. It provides connections of those features and structures the way and the vocacbularies that we use to describe them. By implementing SoilML as globally consistent, standardised data, using OGC compliant web services, we can readily exchange our soil data within the soil community (eg to build the HWSDB and the eSOTER world soil map and the 1km and 90m GlobalSoilMap grids supported under Pillar 4 of the Global Soil Partnership). Importantly we can integrate soils within other nationally and globally important issues – such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water management and food security.