Globalization and global environmental issues, as well as unification of scientific researches and teaching on EU level necessitate harmonization and correlation of technical languages, such as the one used in soil science. Despite the strong development of the science of soil in recent years, the format of the presented soil data is extremely diverse in different countries. The problem lies just not only in the format of the presented data but also in the scientific language used. Such local variability is hindering teaching of soil science in the international context and access to data necessary for the regional (European scale) interpretations. Despite the passage of years and the development of unified European system of soil description it is still not used in a satisfactory manner among teaching staff at EU universities. National bias in soil teaching still dominate and seriously complicates exchange of information and teaching process.
This website is an extensive soil database in unified format focusing on Central Europe, covering the Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, but supplemented also by some soils from other regions .
International system of the characteristics of soils adopted by the FAO is used for the presentation of the data. Interpretation of the origin and systematic position of soils is based on the 3rd edition (2014 update 2015) of international classification of soils WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources). Data base is freely accessible and soils are presented in multimedia and interactive ways.
Primary aim of the project is to create the international digital platform and database for the soil classification information exchange critically needed for the teaching in environmental sciences.
Target groups are academicians and students researching and studying environmental connected subjects. We hope, that the obtained product will be powerful tool in teaching at universities. The use of presented soil data will be resulting in raising of theoretical and practical qualifications and skills of students and soil science professionals. Soils photographs and descriptions supplemented by modern solution (panoramas) can be succesfully introduced even during the lessons of geography on High School level.
Data base was created in the frame of FACES project: https://sites.google.com/site/centraleuropesoils/