GlobalSoilMap.net DSM Comparison Project Meeting Agenda

Date: Sunday, May 23, 2010 Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Venue: Via della Navicella 2-4, Rome, Italy

Prior to the meeting:

• Selection of study areas: An effort will have been completed to identify and select up to four (4) different study areas, representative of different types of soils and landscapes, as well as of different levels and types of availability of soil legacy data (points and maps) and covariate data.
• Data Assembly: Efforts will have been completed to obtain, collate and pre-process all of the key data sets required to implement digital soil mapping for the 4 study areas.
• Legacy Data: We will try very hard to have all known and currently available point data sets of geo-located profile data for each of the study areas collated and reformatted for easy access and use by project participants.
• Covariates: We will try very hard to identify, locate and obtain (or compute) all major covariates that might be useful and to collate them for easy access by project participants.
• Cyber-infrastructure: We will try very hard to have a web-based platform in place to support collaboration and sharing of data, ideas, programs, results and reports. We are working on procuring something like this for ISRIC but it is progressing slowly.
• Prediction Methods: We will try very hard to have identified and obtained all of the major public domain software programs that have been widely used in digital soil mapping and will have them available for easy access and use by all registered project participants.
• Participation: Efforts will have been completed to identify and contact all individuals with a well established presence in digital soil mapping who possess the tools and experience to apply and evaluate different digital soil mapping methods. These individuals will be specifically invited to attend the DSM comparison workshop and participate in the project.

Objectives

• To make as wide a group of knowledgeable practitioners of digital soil mapping as possible aware of the GlobalSoilMap.net digital soil mapping (DSM) comparison project.
• To recruit as many of these knowledgeable DSM practitioners as possible to participate in and contribute to the DSM comparison project.
• To discuss and develop ground rules for the proposed project with all interested participants.
• To provide an opportunity for interested parties to discuss and submit ideas for how this project can be organized and completed and for what types of approaches may be applied and tested.
• To organize access to, and distribution of, the data sets assembled for the project.

Expected output

• A list of individuals and organizations who have registered intent to contribute to the project.
• An agreed upon set of rules, organization and outputs for the project.
• Registration of initial participants and distribution of assembled data to registered participants.

Programme:

Sunday May 30, 2010 (Chair Bob MacMillan)

Morning Session
09:00 – 09:30

Welcome and introductions (Bob MacMillan)
Background:

1. Why does the GlobalSoilMap.net project want to sponsor a DSM comparison project?
2. What do we hope to get out of the project?
3. What can participants hope to get out of the project?

09:30 – 10:00
Study areas – Where are they, why were they selected and what data do we have for them? (Bob)

10:00 – 10:30 Project design – Interactive discussion of the project: Define scope of ambitions and outputs.

10:30 – 11:00 Cyber-infrastructure – What infrastructure do we need to support a collaborative project?

• Short term needs and what has been done to address them
• Longer term needs and possibilities

11:00 – 11:20 BREAK

11:20 – 12:30 Prediction Methods – Identification and discussion of main proposed prediction methods

• Methods that use mainly point profile data (Tom, Thorsten, Raphael, Budi, others?)
• Methods that use mainly area-class map data (A-Xing, Zamir, Alan)
• Methods that use both point and map data about equally (Thomas Mayr, Philippe, Endre)
• Methods that are used in areas that lack suitable point or map data (Alex, Budi, Scott)

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session

13:30 – 14:30 Legacy Data (Profile and Map) – What do we have and what needs to be done to it?

• Profile Data – collating, formatting for ease of access and use, fitting of splines for 6 depths
• Legacy Map Data – What do we have and how can we best use it? Area-class disaggregation

14:30 – 15:00 Initial Outputs – What outputs have we managed to produce to date?

Examples of covariates and predictions prepared for areas to date (Bob)

15:00 – 15:30 Planning – What do we need to do to move forward and get results

• Ideas for things the project should do (pick covariates, methods, resolution, scale, methods)
• Agree on scope, goals, outputs, timelines, rules of participation and rewards.

15:30 – 15:50 BREAK

15:50 – 17:00 Project initiation

• Sign up those DSM practitioners present who are interested and willing to contribute.
• Arrange to distribute or provide access to compiled data sets, programs and so on.

Location

View Larger Map