Harmonized World Soil Database version 2.2 supports agroecological assessments

Reliable soil information is essential for assessing land suitability, agricultural production potential and sustainable natural resource management. FAO and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) have released the Harmonized World Soil Database version 2.2 (HWSD v2.2), an updated global soil inventory that provides information on the morphological, chemical and physical properties of soils at approximately 1 km spatial resolution.

The database includes a wide range of soil attributes across seven depth layers extending to 200 cm. It supports agroecological assessments, food security analysis, climate change studies and biophysical modelling.

The release of HWSD v2.2 is closely linked to the development of the Global Agro-Ecological Zones assessment version 5 (GAEZ v5), which uses HWSD soil information to assess land suitability, crop production potential and agroecological constraints. The updated version incorporates corrections to soil data and soil phase information, revised soil classifications aligned with the World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2022 (WRB 2022), and improved procedures for estimating rootable soil depth and available water capacity (AWC).

These improvements strengthen the completeness, consistency and reliability of the database. They also improve the soil information that underpins GAEZ assessments and supports global and regional agroecological and environmental modelling applications.

HWSD v2.2 is available through the FAO GAEZ Data Portal. A forthcoming technical report by Nachtergaele et al. will provide a detailed description of the database, its methodology and the improvements introduced in version 2.2.