First meeting of the Editorial Board of the Soil Atlas of Asia
The Global Soil Partnership and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC-EU) are organizing the first meeting of the Editorial board for the preparation of the Soil Atlas of Asia.
The development of the Atlas contributes to the execution of the Asian Soil Partnership implementation plan that was endorsed by member countries in December 2016.
In addition, the Atlas will form part of a collection of Atlases initiated and produced by the JRC-EC. To this end, the Atlas will be prepared by contributing authors and editorial board members from Asian countries under the facilitation of FAO-GSP and JRC-EC.
The Atlas aims to
1) raise awareness amongst the general public, land managers/owners, policy makers, politicians, NGOs and other scientific communities of the importance of soil in Asia
2) support policies and instruments for investment, agriculture, environmental issues, climate change, development and aid assistance, urban planning,
3) provide educational material to schools and universities to support learning, and
4) provide a baseline for further soil assessments in the region.
The production of the Atlas is also related to the production of national soil maps and the soil data harmonization process initiated within the execution of activities under GSP Pillars 4 and 5 as part of the Global Soil Information System (GLOSIS).
The preparation of the Soil Atlas of Asia is sponsored by Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC-EC).