To better understand the planet’s topsoil, a large team of international scientists created the first high-resolution global map of six key soil properties. Two faculty members from the UF/IFAS Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences contributed their expertise in GeoAI and pedometrics. The assessment that Dr. Sabine Grunwald, Dr. Nikolaos Tziolas and their colleagues conducted could influence everything from agricultural management and sustainable-land-use planning to water and food security.
Published in the high-impact, global journal The Innovation, the study integrates more than 150,000 georeferenced soil observations including private research soil data. It uses advanced Earth observation technologies and machine-learning models to generate maps with a 90-meter resolution. That level of detail is finer than any previous global soil dataset. The research addresses soil health properties such as organic carbon stock, clay content, pH, cation exchange capacity, and bulk density.
Insights into Soil Health
The findings reveal that 64% of the world’s topsoil is sandy and susceptible to degradation. This highlights the vulnerability of global food systems. Additionally, soils under natural vegetation store significantly more organic carbon — up to 60% more — than cultivated lands. That difference has implications for both soil fertility and ecological resilience.
“This information is necessary to understand how soil health connects to broader environmental and socio-economic challenges,” said Grunwald, professor of pedometrics, GeoAI and landscape analysis. “By combining high-resolution remote sensing data with predictive AI models, we can now assess soil variability with much greater accuracy. We can do this regionally and globally.”
Tziolas, assistant professor of soil science artificial intelligence, contributed to the data science and modeling aspects of the research. “This study advances digital soil mapping by merging Earth observation with artificial intelligence,” he said. “The improved spatial detail allows for more targeted land management strategies, especially in areas most at risk for degradation or food insecurity.”
In addition to mapping soil properties, the study links these environmental variables with socio-economic data. Examples include poverty levels and agricultural productivity. This integration helps establish what the authors call a “soil-human nexus.”
“Just like proximity to water helps civilizations grow, we see an equally important relationship between soil health and human prosperity,” Tziolas added.
Global Policy Implications
The study shows the 10 largest countries by land area collectively store 75% of global soil organic carbon stock. However, the poorest nations face the steepest soil degradation. This finding supports the need for soil-informed policies that address equity, sustainability, and long-term resilience.
This type of work is essential if we want science-based strategies for the sustainable development of both people and the planet,” she said. “We are mapping soil, but we’re also mapping social and economic opportunities that soil can support.”
The maps are publicly available for researchers, policymakers, and global development organizations. The information is on the Earth Engine API. These tools allow users to visualize and analyze soil characteristics across continents. With ongoing weather-related pressures — like floods and heat waves — and food scarcity, this project gives the global community knowledge to help manage soil.
José Demattê, professor of soil science at the University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, led the effort. You can read the journal article, “Frontiers in Earth observation for global soil properties assessment linked to environmental and socio-economic factors,” at this link.
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