Africa Soil Information Service (AFSIS)

AFSIS is a data dissemination platform that contains digital soil maps, soil profile databases, remote sensing and field data for Africa. Digital soil maps are spatial databases of soil properties generated through the integration of field and laboratory methods coupled with spatial and non-spatial soil inference systems. Digital soil mapping uses statistical models to predict soil functional properties at unobserved locations in the landscape through inferences based on statistical relationships of soil properties with spatial covariates, such as reflectance data from satellite images, geological maps, digital terrain models, or climate surfaces. Currently AFSIS soil data refers to ISRIC’s SoilGrids database with 250 m spatial resolution, ISRIC’s Africa Soil Profiles Database with more than 18,500 soil profiles, and the ICRAF-ISRIC VNIR soil spectral library. AfSIS is also undertaking new ground data collection efforts, chief among these are the new soil surveys using the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework at each of 60 sentinel landscapes across Africa south of the Sahara, including 160 soil profiles (top and subsoil samples) in each landscape, for a total of 19,200 soil samples. The remote sensing products disseminated by AFSIS are various MODIS products with 250-1000 m spatial resolution. In addition, AFSIS disseminates satellite-derived climate data products with coarse spatial resolution (5-30 km).