Welcome to ISRIC World Soil Information

We are an independent knowledge centre, established in 1966. Our mandate is to serve the international community with information about the world’s soils  and thus to resolving major global issues.

We aim to:

  • Inform and educate about the world’s soils
  • Serve the scientific community as custodian of global soil information
  • Undertake applied research on land and water resources

We are the World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils) within the ICSU World Data System. We also maintain the World Soil Museum and World Soil Library.

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Current themes

Web based soil maps

ISRIC develops a range of web-based digital soil maps, for scientists, policy makers and land users

Temporary soil museum open

Forty soil profiles are now on show at the temporary World Soil Museum location in the Gaia building. Visitors can learn about the main soil types in the Netherlands and get an impression of the enormous variation of soils in the world.

25.000 articles and 8000 maps

Do you need soil information of Amsterdam, Zimbabwe, Asia or the whole world? ISRIC’s library has built up a collection of around 8000 (digitized) maps and 15.000 reports and books.

News

ISRIC - World Soil Information catalyzes cooperation agreements between Kenya and China through Green Water Credits Projects.

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11/Oct/2012

Kenya and China start to share experiences on Green Water Credits

The Green Water Credits initiative for China could testify the legal framework for watershed eco-compensation for the project that mitigates the crisis of water resources in Beijing

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23/Jul/2012

ISRIC starts exploring the feasibility of Green Water Credits implementation in China.

Construction of the new, multifunctional ISRIC World Soil Museum will start in October 2012.

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14/Jun/2012

Construction of ISRIC museum to start after the summer


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Global Issues

Combatting land degradation

Isric’s projects aim to combat land degradation and desertification 

Mitigating climate change

Land management practices can help to reduce net atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations

Biodiversity conservation

Reversing land degradation protects biodiversity

Upcoming events

The Global Soil Forum organizes the first Global Soil Week (GSW) in 2012 in Berlin.

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[18-22 Nov. 2012]

Global Soil Week, Berlin

Recent publications

Projected changes in soil organic carbon stocks upon adoption of recommended soil and water conservation practices in the Upper Tana river catchment, Kenya.  Land degradation & development (2012)    more...

All publications