1/2 A new release of the #GloSIS #WebOntology is out: v1.4. The largest set of changes since release v1.0.
This is possibly the last minor release in the GloSIS v1 series, has the ontology reaches the limits of the current paradigm.
GloSIS v2.0 should explore a different vocabulary paradigm and also constitute another important step in clarifying the #Semantics of #Soil properties, procedures and observations.
Very happy to see this published. Over three years of work with Niels Batjes and Luís Calisto towards possibly the most comprehensive #Soil dataset on the planet: the World Soil Information Service (#WoSIS). A major effort combining #SoilScience and #GeoInformatics.
And one step closer to standardised #SoilData.
Abstract. Snapshots derived from the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS) are served freely to the international community. These static datasets provide quality-assessed and standardised soil profile data that can be used to support digital soil mapping and environmental applications at broad scale levels. Since the release of the preceding snapshot in 2019, refactored ETL (extract, transform and load) procedures for screening, ingesting and standardising disparate source data have been developed. In conjunction with this, the WoSIS data model was overhauled, making it compatible with the ISO 28258 and Observations and Measurements (O&M) domain models. Additional procedures for querying, serving and downloading the publicly available standardised data have been implemented using open software (e.g. GraphQL API). Following up on a short discussion of these methodological developments we discuss the structure and content of the “WoSIS 2023 snapshot”. A range of new soil datasets was shared with us, registered in the ISRIC World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils) data repository and subsequently processed in accordance with the licences specified by the data providers. An important effort has been the processing of forest soil data collated in the framework of the EU-HoliSoils project. We paid special attention to the standardisation of soil property definitions, description of the soil analytical procedures and standardisation of the units of measurement. The 2023 snapshot considers soil chemical properties (total carbon, organic carbon, inorganic carbon (total carbonate equivalent), total nitrogen, phosphorus (extractable P, total P and P retention), soil pH, cation exchange capacity and electrical conductivity) and physical properties (soil texture (sand, silt and clay), bulk density, coarse fragments and water retention), grouped according to analytical procedures that are operationally comparable. Method options are defined for each analytical procedure (e.g. pH measured in water, KCl or CaCl2 solution, molarity of the solution, and soil / solution ratio). For each profile we also provide the original soil classification (i.e. FAO, WRB and USDA system with their version) and pedological horizon designations as far as these have been specified in the source databases. Three measures for “fitness for intended use” are provided to facilitate informed data use: (a) positional uncertainty of the profile's site location, (b) possible uncertainty associated with the operationally defined analytical procedures and (c) date of sampling. The most recent (i.e. dynamic) dataset, called wosis_latest, is freely accessible via various web services. To permit consistent referencing and citation, we also provide a static snapshot (in this case, December 2023). This snapshot comprises quality-assessed and standardised data for 228 000 geo-referenced profiles. The data come from 174 countries and represent more than 900 000 soil layers (or horizons) and over 6 million records. The number of measurements for each soil property varies (greatly) between profiles and with depth, this generally depending on the objectives of the initial soil sampling programmes. In the coming years, we aim to gradually fill gaps in the geographic distribution of the profiles, as well as in the soil observations themselves, this subject to the sharing of a wider selection of “public” soil data by prospective data contributors; possible solutions for this are discussed. The WoSIS 2023 snapshot is archived and freely available at https://doi.org/10.17027/isric-wdcsoils-20231130 (Calisto et al., 2023).
This morning at the #FOSS4G-Europe I delivered the address on the automated generation of #SensorThingsAPI services from #KnowledgeGraphs compliant to the #SOSA web ontology. Unexpectedly, #SoilData provision with #GloSIS is one of the use cases.
The new #ReST API specifications of the #OGC are transforming #GeoSpatial data provision from a technology-centred into a #Semantics-centered exercise.
https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-W12-2024/29/2024/
Tomorrow I am travelling to Crete to attend the #ESWC2024. Sunday, during the #GeoLD workshop, I will be presenting the #GloSIS web ontology. Also in the #GeoLD I am co-authoring a position paper making the case for a #SemanticWeb standard for #CoordinateSystems.
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to present the #GloSIS web ontology to the popular meet-up of the Wageningen Data Competence Centre (#WDCC). Special thanks to Prof. Anna Fensel for the invitation and the photos.
"I eat #UML for breakfast. Now I eat #OWL for lunch." was perhaps the remark of the evening.
And some promotion of your gateway to the #SemanticWeb with my on-line book: linked-sdi.com
The prototype #SensorThingsAPI implementation for the #WoSIS #KnowledgeGraph with #glrc is slowly taking shape at the #OGC #OSGeo #Apache #CodeSprint in Évora.
The #GloSIS #WebOntology now has a record at the #FAIRSharing.org repository. An additional layer of #Metadata with references to related ontologies, supporting documents and institutions involved.
A new release of the #GloSIS #WebOntology is out. Among other improvements, it makes use of the #DBPedia #Ontology to link physio-chemical properties to international vocabularies: #InChi and #PubChem.
These links expose the level of redundancy still present in #GloSIS, with various chemical compounds referenced multiple times (e.g. three Aluminium properties). Reconciling #Chemistry and #SoilScience remains a major challenge
in #SoilOntology.
1/3 Version 1.2 of the #GloSIS #WebOntology is released. Major improvements to classes and #SOSA instances descriptions. Plus a few important bugs corrected.
Dr Susi Arnott
Luís de Sousa
