The Armenian Soil Information System (ArmSIS) has been formally launched during World Soil Day 2020, December 5. The development of ArmSIS represents a steppingstone in the assessment of soil resources to guide effective and knowledge-based policymaking to combat land degradation.
At the request of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, ArmSIS was established through a collaboration between FAO, the Global Soil Partnership, the Armenian National Agrarian University, the Centre of the Agricultural Services (SNCO) and the Institute of Geological Sciences.
ArmSIS is financially supported by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. The new and fully functional Armenian Soil Information System was populated by digitizing legacy soil data and compiling fresh soil data that originated from Armenia’s soil agrochemical sampling campaigns, which occur every 5 years. Soil property maps were created and/or updated through state-of-the-art Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) techniques. The process was supported through a DSM training provided by the GSP. ArmSIS was designed and developed in the framework of GloSIS, using the open-source GeoNetwork catalogue application.
ArmSIS represents not only a great achievement for Armenia but also serves as an example for other countries that want to leverage the full potential of soil information. Its launch constitutes a step closer towards the realization of GloSIS, the first-ever nationally federated and globally harmonized Global Soil Information System.
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