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Introduction

Project summary

More than ever, soil health is an issue that needs urgent attention: recent assessments by the European Commission state that 60–70% of soils in the EU can be considered unhealthy due to a range of soil degradation processes. The EU Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe", the EU Soil Strategy, and the proposal for a Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive aim to have 75% of EU soils healthy or significantly improved by 2030 and all soils healthy by 2050.

SoilWise provides an integrated and actionable access point to scattered and heterogeneous soil data and knowledge in Europe, making them FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and improving trust, willingness, and ability to share and reuse soil data and knowledge.

WP4 objectives and relevant tasks

This deliverable is produced within Work Package 4 (WP4), Delivery of a populated and validated SoilWise Catalogue, led by WETRANSFORM (WE). The four specific objectives of WP4 are:

  • i) to provide a central infrastructure needed for the testing and operation of the SoilWise Catalogue;
  • ii) to integrate the components developed in WP2 (data management) and WP3 (knowledge management);
  • iii) to develop user interfaces (UI) and Application Programming Interfaces (API) that support user data access;
  • iv) to enable User Case actors to test and validate the SWC content and services.

Document scope

This deliverable presents the first version of the SoilWise User Manual, a plain-language reference explaining the SoilWise developments in lay terms. It describes the SoilWise Catalogue as it stands at the end of the third development cycle (around month 30 of the project) and the thirteen platform components that compose it.

The manual is written for the least technical reader. Its primary audience is staff of the European Soil Observatory (EUSO) at the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Readers seeking technical depth are referred to the SoilWise Technical Documentation.

Document structure

This document is comprised of the following chapters:

  • Chapter 1: Introduction — introduces the SoilWise project, WP4 objectives, and the scope of the document.
  • Chapter 2: The SoilWise Catalogue — presents SoilWise in a nutshell and explains why the platform exists.
  • Chapter 3: Platform Components — describes each of the thirteen platform components in plain language.
  • References — bibliography and further reading.