The Free Brazilian Repository for Open Soil Data

Resumo

Brazilian soil science has produced a great deal of data. Most of the information is published as a single paper, and the primary data is unavailable to other researchers. Lately, soil scientists have increased their concerns with data discoverability and reusability, and reproducible research. To address this issue, Brazilian soil scientists have recently created a data repository using community-built standards and following open data policies. The Free Brazilian Repository for Open Soil Data – FEBR, www.ufsm.br/febr – is a centralized repository targeted at storing open soil data and serving it in a standardized and harmonized format. The repository infrastructure was built using open source and/or free (of cost) software, and was primarily designed for the individual management of datasets. This is accomplished by storing each dataset using a collection of Google spreadsheets accessible online. Spreadsheets are familiar to any soil scientist, the reason why it is easier to enter, manipulate and visualize soil data in FEBR Soil scientists can help in the definition of standards and data management choices through a public discussion forum, febr-forum@googlegroups.com. A comprehensive documentation is available to guide febr maintainers and data contributors. A detailed catalog gives access to the 14 477 soil observations from 232 datasets contained in FEBR Global and dataset-specific visualization and search tools and multiple download facilities are available. The latter includes standard file formats and connections with R and QGIS through the febr package. Various products can be derived from data in FEBR: specialized databases, pedotransfer functions, fertilizer recommendation guides, classification systems, and detailed soil maps.

Alessandro Samuel-Rosa

Professor Adjunto

Meus interesses de pesquisa incluem otimização amostral, geoestatística e aprendizado de máquina, e dados abertos do solo.