Global Agro-ecological Assessment for Agriculture in the 21st Century

In recent years the ability to collect spatial information from volunteers has greatly expanded through the combination of Google Earth, geo-tagged photos and the Internet. A Geo-Wiki has been created to aid in both the validation of existing spatial information and the collection of new information through the powerful resource of crowdsourcing. A case study of a land cover validation Geo-Wiki is described, in which the tool is used to validate existing global land cover products. The potential of such a tool for other applications is also recognized

Global Agro-ecological Assessment for Agriculture in the 21st Century: Methodology and Results

Over the past 20 years, the term "agro-ecological zones methodology," or AEZ, has become widely used. However, it has been associated with a wide range of different activities that are often related yet quite different in scope and objectives. FAO and IIASA differentiate the AEZ methodology in the following activities: First, AEZ provides a standardized framework for the characterization of climate, soil, and terrain conditions relevant to agricultural production. In this context, the concepts of "length of growing period" and of latitudinal thermal climates have been applied in mapping activities focusing on zoning at various scales, from the subnational to the global level. Second, AEZ matching procedures are used to identify crop-specific limitations of prevailing climate, soil, and terrain resources, under assumed levels of inputs and management conditions. This part of the AEZ methodology provides estimates of maximum potential and agronomically attainable crop yields for basic land resources units. Third, AEZ provides the frame for various applications. The previous two sets of activities result in very large databases. The information contained in these data sets form the basis for a number of AEZ applications, such as quantification of land productivity, extents of land with rain-fed or irrigated cultivation potential, estimation of land's population supporting capacity, and multi-criteria optimization of the use and development of land resources. The AEZ methodology uses a land resources inventory to assess, for specified management conditions and levels of inputs, all feasible agricultural land-use options and to quantify anticipated production of cropping activities relevant in the specific agro-ecological context. The characterization of land resources includes components of climate, soils, and land form. The recent availability of digital global databases of climatic parameters, topography, soil and terrain, and land cover ahs allowed for revisions and improvements in calculation procedures. It has also allowed the expansion of assessments of AEZ crop suitability and land productivity potentials to temperate and boreal environments. This effectively enables global coverage for assessments of agricultural potentials. The AEZ methodologies and procedures have been extended and newly implemented to make use of these digital geographical databases, and to cope with specific characteristics of seasonal temperate and boreal climates. This report describes the methodological adaptations necessary for the global assessment and illustrates with numerous results a wide range of applications

Soil Data Derived from WISE for Use in Global and Regional AEZ Studies (Version 1.0)

During discussions at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the need was identified for refinement of the agro-edaphic element in the revision of FAO's "Agro-Ecological Zones" AEZ methodology carried out by IIASA and FAO and in the IIASA's "Modeling Land Use and Land Cover Change in Europe and Northern Eurasia" (LUC) project. To this avail, the 4350 soil profile descriptions held in ISRIC's World Inventory of Soil Emission Potential (WISE) database were stratified by soil unit, topsoil textural class and depth zone (0-30 cm and 30-100 cm). Upon a screening on analytical methods used and application of an outlier rejection scheme, derived statistics were generated for 30 soil chemical and physical attributes identified as being important for AEZ studies and analyses of global environmental change. Selected results for Acrisols, classified according to the 1974 version of FAO-Unesco Soil Map of the World Legend, are presented as examples in the Appendices. Special attention was paid to the assessment of Total Available Water Capacity (TAWC), an important parameter in calculation of the length of growing period. Data have been compiled for all the considered combinations of soil unit, topsoil textural class, attribute and depth zone, both for the 1974 and 1990 Legend. Simple taxotranfer rules are introduced to fill some of the gaps that remained in the derived data, notably where sufficient measured data were lacking for particular attributes. As a sequel to the current study, the taxotransfer rules should be fine-tuned and the results should be supplemented with data extracted from the FAO's CD-ROM of the "Digital Soil Map of the World and Derived Soil Properties." This combined database will be revised by a group of soil experts. The recommended level-of-detail for presenting the various results should also be determined at that stage. This follow-up activity is necessary to arrive at a mutually agreed upon set of derived soil properties for land evaluation and environmental studies at the continental and global level, for subsequent release as a unified product to the global modeling community

Global Agro-Ecological Zones Assessment: Methodology and Results

Over the past twenty years, the term "agro-ecological zones methodology" (AEZ) has become widely used. However, it has been associated with a wide range of different activities that are often related yet quite different in scope and objectives. FAO and IIASA differentiate the AEZ methodology in the following activities: First, AEZ provides a standardized framework for the characterization of climate, soil and terrain conditions relevant to agricultural production. In this context, the concepts of Length of Growing Period (LGP) and of latitudinal thermal climates have been applied in mapping activities focusing on zoning at various scales, from sub-national to global level. Second, AEZ matching procedures are used to identify crop-specific limitations of prevailing climate, soil and terrain resources, under assumed levels of inputs and management conditions. This part of the AEZ methodology provides estimates of maximum potential and agronomically attainable crop yields for basic land resources units. Third, AEZ provides the frame for various applications. The previous two sets of activities result in very large databases. The information contained in these data sets form the basis for a number of AEZ applications, such as quantification of land productivity, extents of land with rain-fed or irrigated cultivation potential, estimation of the lands population supporting capacity, and multi-criteria optimization of land resources use and development. The AEZ methodology utilizes a land resources inventory to assess, for specified management conditions and levels of inputs, all feasible agricultural land-use options and to quantify expected production of cropping activities relevant in the specific agro-ecological context. The characterization of land resources includes components of climate, soils and landform. Recent availability of digital global databases of climatic parameters, topography, soil and terrain, and land cover has allowed for revisions and improvements in calculation procedures and to expand assessments of AEZ crop suitability and land productivity potentials to temperate and boreal environments. This effectively enables global coverage for assessments of agricultural potentials. The AEZ methodologies and procedures have been extended and newly implemented to make use of these digital geographical databases, and to cope with the specific characteristics of growing periods in the seasonal temperate and boreal climates. This report describes the methodological adaptations necessary for the global assessment and illustrates with numerous results a wide range of global AEZ applications

Soil and Terrain Database for Tunisia primary data (version 1.0) - scale 1:1 million (SOTER_Tunisia)

The Soil and Terrain database for Tunisia primary data (version 1.0), at scale 1:1 million (SOTER_Tunisia), was compiled of enhanced soil information within the framework of the FAO's program of Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA). A SOTER database was compiled based on the digital soil map of Tunisia. The primary soil and terrain data for Tunisia has been selected from available survey reports and publications. A SRTM-DEM was used to adjust some unit boundaries in the GIS file. SOTER forms a part of the ongoing activities of ISRIC, FAO and UNEP to update the world's baseline information on natural resources.The project involved collaboration with national soil institutes from the countries in the region as well as individual experts