A decentralized network of soil information systems for soil data management across the Mediterranean region

Reliable soil information is essential for monitoring soil health and supporting sustainable land management. However, soil datasets are often fragmented across national databases that differ in structure, classification systems, and data collection methodologies, limiting their interoperability and large-scale use for environmental assessment and policy support. This study presents the development of a decentralized network of soil information systems (SIS) designed to improve soil data management and accessibility across the Mediterranean Region (MR) and the Near East and North Africa regions within the SOILS4MED (SOIL health monitoring and information systems FOR sustainable soil management in the MEDiterranean region) project. The proposed framework enables participating countries to implement country-owned SIS platforms based on a shared conceptual and logical data model aligned with the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, providing a basis for the future creation of a federated network, a decentralized and interconnected system in which distinct and independent nodes operate together, sharing resources while maintaining their autonomy. This approach enables secure data sharing, interoperability, and unified management across distributed locations, without the need for a single central authority. The SISs integrate heterogeneous sources of soil information, including legacy soil datasets, ongoing monitoring data, and derived soil health indicators, within a common geospatial infrastructure. The SIS architecture is based on an open-source framework providing WebGIS functionalities and interoperability through standardized geospatial services. By combining a harmonized soil data model with an interoperable geospatial infrastructure, the proposed framework constitutes a scalable solution for integrating heterogeneous soil information across multiple countries with the potential to support the development of a federated network of SISs in the Mediterranean region.