DIN EN ISO 28258:2014-03

This standard has been prepared by ISO/TC 190 "Soil quality" and been adopted by Technical Committee CEN/TC 345 "Characterization of soils" (both secretariats: NEN). Regarding the German collaboration, NA 119-01-02-03 UA "Standortbeurteilung" ("Site assessment") is involved in the preparation. Since the IT terms and semantics on which the worldwide exchange of soil data is based are only given in this language, the text of the standard will be published exclusively in English. This standard describes how to digitally exchange soil-related data. It aims to facilitate the exchange of valid, clearly described and specified soil-related data between individuals and organizations via digital systems. It enables soil data producers, holders or users to find and transfer data in an unambiguous way. This standard contains definitions of features, several parameter specifications and encoding rules that allow consistent and retrievable data exchange. It also allows the explicit georeferencing of soil data by building on already existing ISO standards, thus facilitating the use of soil data within geographical information systems (GIS). Because soil data are of various origins and are obtained according to a huge variety of description and classification systems, this standard provides no attribute catalogue, but a flexible approach to the unified encoding of soil data by implementing the provisions of ISO 19156 observations and measurements (OM) for use in soil science. Figure 1 shows the fluxes of soil data, generic to many kinds of applications that can be organized using this standard.