Soil attribute database of Russia

Russia has long needed a world-level soil attribute (profile) information database which should become the basis for creating a system of monitoring of the state of soils and for developing measures for their conservation and efficient land use. A unified system of gathering and storing information on soils, which at the same time would be open for general use, is needed. The present work is devoted to problems of the concept and methodology of creating a soil geographic database (SGDB) of Russia. The structure and content of the soil attribute database, underlying which is the concept of representative soils profiles, are given. A list of classifiers for preparing data presentation formats in the SGDB on the basis of existing concepts of soil morphology and classifiers characterizing the main physicochemical properties of soils is developed. The work underlies the creation of an information resource—“Soil-Geographic Database of Russia. Project of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Society”—on the Internet at the address .