ISRIC provides novel GraphQL tools to explore its soil data holdings

At ISRIC – World Soil Information we have large global datasets, but often people would like to have data for a smaller area such as a single country. If you are looking for freely accessible, quality-assessed soil data for one or more countries, you can easily search for that using the new GraphQL API linked to the WoSIS (World Soil Information Service) database.

“With this new GraphQL tool you can explore and download soil data for a small defined area,” said Luis Calisto, ISRIC database development expert who developed the new GraphQL API interface. “This novel service provides an important addition to our present GeoNetwork instance that allows download of ‘wosis_latest’ data for the world and soilgrids.org platform.”

Access the new WoSIS GraphQL tools.

Luis and the WoSIS team recently led a half day masterclass at the 2023 Wageningen Soil Conference to guide users who want to take advantage of the new WoSIS GraphQL tool. Check out the masterclass materials, with a complete step-by-step tutorial with examples showing how to use the API, for more information.

More than forty different soil properties are available through WoSIS including soil organic carbon content, bulk density, proportion of coarse fragments, and soil pH.

“These new developments are part of ISRIC’s ongoing efforts to improve services to the international community by providing a wider range of options to query and access our holdings,” added Niels Batjes, ISRIC senior soil scientist and WoSIS project leader. “This is part of our role as trustworthy provider of soil information within the ISC (International Science Council) World Data System.”

More about the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS):

Presently, we distribute standardised soil data for 220,000 profiles worldwide through WoSIS. This is a large data holding, but there are still many geographic and taxonomic gaps. Further, there are fewer data for soil physical than chemical properties. Your soil profile data can contribute to improving world soil information, please share and support the WoSIS effort.