agINFRA Soil Vocabulary
Under construction.
Based on INSPIRE.
Developed by the Italian Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA) in collaboration with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
2014-04-22
http://vocabularies.aginfra.eu/soil#
soil
Giovanni L'Abate
CRA
Valeria Pesce
Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)
Soil Profile
The core class for soil description. Definition:
description of the soil that is characterized by a vertical succession of profile elements.
Description:
NOTE The soil profile is abstracted from observations in a trial pit or a boring, or derived from expert knowledge using other soil profiles.
Derived Soil Profile
A sub-class of Soil Profile for profiles not phisically observed. A “derived soil profile” (DerivedSoilProfile object in the model) is a soil profile that cannot be located in a soil plot. It corresponds to the spatial extent of a soil type that has been observed in one or several observed soil profiles. The derived soil profile has property values that could be derived (e.g. averaged) from the values of the corresponding properties of one or more observed soil profiles. The derived soil profile can be characterized by the same properties as those of the observed soil profiles, but it is understood that the values for these properties have been derived or determined by expert judgment or calculation. A derived soil profile can be seen as a characterisation of a Soil Typological Unit (STU), or Series, as recognized in the European Soil Geographical Database and other soil databases at national or regional levels. A derived soil profile is not necessarily linked to observed soil profiles, in which case it represents a hypothetical soil profile.
Observed Soil Profile
A sub-class of Soil Profile: soil profiles based on observations. The observed soil profile corresponds to a set of data taken directly from a georeferenced soil profile, described in the field, and often sampled and analyzed in the laboratory
Definition:
a representation of a soil profile found on a specific location which is described on the basis of observations in a trial pit or with a borehole.
Description:
The observed soil profile corresponds to a set of data taken directly from a georeferenced soil profile, described in the field, and often sampled and analyzed in the laboratory
Profile Element
Super-class for all profile elements (horizon or layer). Has all the properties that are common to horizon and layer.
Soil Horizon
Definition:
Domain of a soil with a certain vertical extension, more or less parallel to the surface and homogeneous for most morphological and analytical characteristics, developed in a parent material layer through pedogenic processes or made up of in-situ sedimented organic residues of up-growing plants (peat).
Description:
SOURCE ISO/WD 28258, modified NOTE Horizons may be part of a layer
Soil Layer
Definition:
domain of a soil with a certain vertical extension developed through non-pedogenic processes, displaying a change in structure and/or composition to possibly over- or underlying adjacent domains, or a grouping of soil horizons or other sub-domains with a special purpose.
Description:
NOTE1 Different kinds of layer concepts are covered by this definition
Soil Derived Object
Definition:
A spatial object type for representing spatial objects with soil-related property derived from one or more soil and possibly other non soil properties.
Description:
NOTE Soil thematic maps can be derived directly from the involved soil database (organic matter content, pH, texture, etc.) or they can be derived by using pedotransfer functions or pedotransfer rules (e.g. plant available water in the rooting depth). Derivation can be simple extraction from a single data field, or a complex combination of different kind of data and application of e.g. mathematical or expert knowledge-based procedures
Soil Body
Definition:
Link to a derived soil profile that characterizes the soil body, possibly in combination with other derived soil profiles. The association has additional properties as defined in the association class DerivedProfilePresenceInSoilBody.
Description:
This association constitutes the link to those derived soil profiles that inform about the internal structure and properties of the soil body
Soil Site
A soil site (SoilSite object in the model) is considered as a) the surrounding of a soil profile, and/or b) the larger piece of land that is directly linked to and described by all soil investigations on one or more spots, called soil plots
Soil Plot
A “soil plot” (SoilPlot object in the model) is the location of a specific soil investigation (e.g. of a trial pit). Because for many soil investigations the studied soil is destroyed, the soil site provides also the object to which the results of repeated investigations are related and handled as if they were obtained from the very same place. The purpose of the investigation can be of a general nature (e.g. a reconnaissance whereby soil profiles are taken for a general soil characterization) or specific (e.g. a reconnaissance whereby samples are taken to investigate potentially contaminated land); this information can be crucial for data evaluation to identify bias in the selection of sites. A soil plot within a soil site is of a certain type (borehole, trial pit, sample) and located by coordinates and/or the name of that location.
Soil Theme Coverage
The specific purpose of the SoilThemeCoverage class (see Figure 8) is to provide a structure for the interchange of soil thematic maps as continuous phenomena. The geometry is represented as a coverage which is defined as a “feature that acts as a function to return values from its range for any direct position within its spatial, temporal or spatiotemporal domain”. For soil this commonly is a rectified grid
Soil Theme Descriptive Coverage
The SoilThemeDescriptiveCoverage has the same spatial and domain extent as the associated SoilThemeCoverage. Definition:
this association allows for a certain SoilThemeCoverage to have a related Coverage which does not have a meaning without the base coverage.
Description:
EXAMPLE a coverage of the pH of the topsoil is associated with a coverage with exactly the same extent and domain reporting on the level of confidence of the pH values of the base coverage.
Derived Profile Presence In SoilBody
Interval that defines the minimum and maximum percentage of the area of the soil body represented by a specific derived soil profile.
Coverage by domain and range
-- Definition --
Coverage which provide the domain and range as separate properties.
Coverage
-- Definition --
Spatial object that acts as a function to return values from its range for any direct position within its spatial, temporal or spatiotemporal domain.
-- Description --
EXAMPLE Examples include a raster image, polygon overlay or digital elevation matrix.
Rectified grid coverage
-- Definition --
Coverage whose domain consists of a rectified grid
-- Description --
A rectified grid is a grid for which there is an affine transformation between the grid coordinates and the coordinates of a coordinate reference system.
INSPIRE ID
Soil profile observation
The observation on which the Soil Observed Profile is based.
Is derived from
Is part of
Is based on soil derived object
Is based on soil body
Is based on observed soil profile
Is described by
Location
Is observed on location
Is represented by