Objective:
ISRIC maintains a number of (soil information) databases that are freely available to the scientific community and other non-commercial groups. To enable the use of new (web) technologies that permit faster and new forms of soil information delivery, ISRIC implements a centralized and user–focused database ("world soil database") containing only validated and authorized data from current and future data sources - databases, papers, projects, etc. Thus, all data managed or maintained by ISRIC will be made available on-line from one central database environment in one uniform format that will allow accessing, processing and visualization through one set of tools. Instrumental to enhanced usability and accessibility of the data in the world soil database will be the future harmonization of soil properties values (i.e., their domain), as well as standardization of analytical procedure descriptions. A stack of open RESTful web services has been developed, supporting (exchange) data present and future models.
Implementation:
The current, centralized database design consists of 70 interrelated tables, organized in 10 schemas that mimic a federated database system (a type of meta-database management system which transparently integrates multiple autonomous database systems into a single virtual database). The design has been implemented in PostgreSQL and contains data for some 22.000 soil profiles. Following international peer review several adjustments were made and its currently in Beta Version. A fully operational system will be avaiable in mid 2012; it will be queryable through different services (e.g., Data Entry, MetaDataService, OSP, WMS).
