One of ASLAC’s key achievements is the Soil Information System of Latin America and the Caribbean (SISLAC), a spatial soil database that includes soil profiles data distributed across the continent. The system is designed to provide information on the chemical, biological, and physical properties for soil horizons and layers, including site descriptions, spatial locations, and physical and chemical properties.

SISLAC data are now openly available through FAO’s GSP GloSIS platform, a milestone made possible by the continued efforts of countries in the region, supported by FAO and its GSP. This transition marks the beginning of a new phase for SISLAC, as the system is now fully accessible to users worldwide.

Building SISLAC: Establishing a Harmonized Soil Database for Latin America and the Caribbean

SISLAC was established in 2013 under the coordination of GSP through a collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and 20 national institutions. At that time, Latin America and the Caribbean lacked a consolidated regional soil profile database. Soil data were often fragmented across institutions, countries and formats, limiting their use for regional assessments and policy support.

The objective of SISLAC was to address this gap by creating a harmonized and openly accessible regional system built from national contributions, while respecting data ownership. With support from the FAO regional office, countries across the region have been contributing with soil profile data progressively, building a unique repository that, in many cases, represents the only digital soil information currently available at country level. This regional effort enabled all countries in the region to collaborate with the publication of the GSOC map in 2018 and stimulated significant scientific production. It resulted in a regional publication on digital soil mapping and some national‑level publications, including in Ecuador and Chile, where national soil information systems were considerably strengthened thanks to this initiative.

A major update of SISLAC

In 2024, 44 authors from the region and FAO experts published the article Improving the Latin America and Caribbean Soil Information System database (Sergio Díaz-Guadarrama et al., 2024), evaluating the quality of the SISLAC database and integrated other regional soil datasets to create an improved version. In the article, the authors applied a four-phase validation process to identify and correct spatial errors, remove duplicates, and fix inconsistencies in soil layer descriptions.

Originally, the SISLAC database contained data from 49 084 soil profiles distributed unevenly across the region. The information consisted of site descriptions for each profile, its precise spatial location in geographic coordinates, and its comprising layers with associated physical and chemical properties. It also included data provider information and metadata for the attributes. The soil property data primarily focused on variables such as organic carbon, pH, clay, silt, and sand.

The major changes made by the authors involved a massive data cleaning and integration process that resulted in a final database of 66,746 profiles. They excluded 15% of the original SISLAC profiles due to inaccurate descriptions of diagnostic horizons and 32% of total profiles analyzed because of erroneous descriptions or spatial duplication. The authors integrated approximately 40,000 additional soil profiles from various national and international databases into the system. Additionally, they corrected 4.5% of the existing inconsistencies using established expert judgment guidelines to ensure the database meets minimum quality requirements for practical applications.

The new version was made available for public use through the Zenodo platform. The authors published the data and the source code used for data processing and validation within the same repository to facilitate transparency and reproducibility.

Integrating SISLAC in GloSIS

As part of its mission to support regions with limited hosting capacity, the GSP has now integrated the SISLAC database into the Global Soil Information System (GloSIS), an open-access spatial data infrastructure developed by the GSP to harmonize soil data from national and regional institutions. Managed by the International Network of Soil Information Institutions (INSII), GloSIS connects decentralized soil information systems into a federated global platform to address environmental challenges at multiple scales.

This integration addresses significant challenges regarding long-term data governance and technical infrastructure in the Latin America and Caribbean region. While the original SISLAC platform presented limitations for direct administrative updates and modern management, its migration to GloSIS ensures its role as a vital, high-quality resource. Currently, the region lacks a dedicated institutional body with formal mandate and technical capacity to manage the system independently. Consequently, establishing a sustainable governance framework with clear regional roles remains a critical priority for future coordination and sustainable management of soil resources.

Strengthening SISLAC as a regional soil information system

As SISLAC enters a new phase of openness and stronger scientific usability, the next steps will depend on continued regional coordination through ASLAC, with FAO continuing to provide hosting and technical support.

Maintaining the scientific and operational value of SISLAC will require regular updates and revisions over time. Periodic data contributions, validation cycles and collaborative review processes can help keep the database aligned with evolving soil information in the region. Tracking the use of SISLAC in scientific publications and applied initiatives could also help increase the visibility of national contributions, demonstrate its value and inform future improvements.

A further priority is to expand the use of SISLAC across academia, public institutions and applied research communities. Wider use in digital soil mapping, environmental modelling, land restoration planning and national soil information systems can strengthen the relevance of the database and encourage additional country contributions.

Since its creation, SISLAC has aimed to support not only the storage of soil profile data but also broader soil information application and decision-making in Latin America and the Caribbean. Continued progress will depend on sustained regional leadership, coordinated governance and an active community of contributors and users.