The ideology and history of open soil data in the USA and Can citizen science be used for digital soil mapping?

Transcription

1 The ideology soil data in ISRIC World Soil Information Nanjing Normal University School of Geographic Science Cornell University, Section of Soil & Crop Sciences 03 July 2017

2 The ideology Outline 1 2

3 The ideology Part 1: Who owns it? Where is its value? Origin of the ideology Application of the ideology to the digital age Objections to open data: Q & A

4 The ideology soil data: ideology (1) Who owns it? society has already paid for the soil data with their taxes original collection via Cooperative Soil Survey (multiple funding agencies) maintenance distribution as part of open government soils information is a public good so, digital soils data should be made freely available

5 The ideology soil data: ideology (2) Where it its value? Data is a multiplier: the private sector academia can use public information as they see fit farmers, consultants, engineers, planners, students, pedologists, earth surface modellers... should lead to economic efficiency for society as a whole Our philosophy has been that we want the customers to use the information if we can give it away it will get used more (Tom Calhoun, 2002) This helps build political support for the agency its mission when budgets are discussed by the legislature. It also requires active promotion of soil data for new uses / new user groups.

6 The ideology Interpretations for suburban development (1969)

7 The ideology Origin of the ideology Locke 1690 The second treatise of government (an essay concerning the true origina, extent end of civil government) Government exists to provide the greatest public good Founding of Lockian philosophy of government foundational natural rights based on human reason, separation of powers, private property, constitutionalism, liberal democracy, government based on the consent of the governed Lincoln 1862: authorization of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) acquire diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture [] rural development... in the most general comprehensive sense of those terms 1898 first Division of Soils surveys; published by USDA

8 The ideology Application of the ideology to the digital age US Code Title 44/35 of 1980, amended 1996, mates the dissemination of public information on a timely basis, on equitable terms, in a manner that promotes the utility of the information to the public makes effective use of information technology Executive Order (Clinton 1994): national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI): all agencies of the federal government must make their geospatial data available to the public Data required to be documented using Federal Geographic Data Committee (2004) metadata stards Provision of geospatial data is part of the regular tasks of each agency. Each kind of data has a designated agency Soil: National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

9 The ideology On-line open soil data timeline s: digitized SSURGO ( 1:24k polygons from original reports most on uncontrolled airphoto basis, had to be re-digitized by h onto stable topographic map bases allowed adjustment of lines to terrain; re-interpetation of soil-lscape concepts; harmonization across county state borders distributed free on CD s then DVD s 2 Official Series Descriptions, Soil Characterization Data Web Soil Survey (seamless SSURGO with interpretations, each query limited areas) 4 Geospatial Data Gateway (soils related data for rural planning) 5 SoilWeb (California Soil Resources Lab, UC Davis) POLARIS (Princeton, NRCS), 48 SoilGrids100m+ (Penn State, ISRIC, NRCS)

10 The ideology UC Davis derived products

11 The ideology NRCS soil characterization data

12 The ideology POLARIS

13 The ideology Competing philosophies of government (1) Citizen-oriented Lockian ideology: government serves the general public good All initiatives for soil survey were approved under Democratic administrations (Clevel 1893, FD Roosevelt 1933, Truman 1952, Carter 1980, Clinton 1993) (2) Business-oriented public-private partnerships (corporations advance capital for later benefits) direct beneficiaries pay for access / services

14 The ideology Rethinking open data / open government? https: //

15 The ideology 1 Q: Who pays? Objections A: Taxpayers as part of the government function 2 Q: Who decides on new products/access methods? A1: Agency staff as part of planning process, subject to political imperatives A2: Anyone else can use the data for their innovative products we haven t thought of/don t have expertise for/don t have budget for 3 Q: Can the data be mis-used/mis-represented? A1: Yes, but good products will eliminate the bad. A2: We provide accurate metadata to help proper use. 4 Q: The data is not perfect, users will find errors A1: Knowing that others will use the data stimulates me to do the best I can A2: Give users a way to report problems 5 Q: Can t other nations use the soils data to plan invasions? A1: Yes, but we can use it better to defend ourselves A2: I welcome our Canadian overlords

16 The ideology Part 2: for digital soil Ideas based on Rossiter, D. G., Liu, J., Carlisle, S., & Zhu, A.-X. (2015) science assist digital soil Geoderma :71. Shorter discussion in Rossiter, D. G. (2016) science assist digital soil Pedometron 39:20 Purpose: to stimulate the discussion on the possibilities, so that active digital soil mappers can consider how, in their specific social soil context, a successful citizen science initiative might be undertaken

17 The ideology Definition: participation of non-specialists in scientific research. The citizen (non-specialist, unpaid) acts as an observer or experimenter within structures established by a project run by professional scientists Aims: (1) amplify scientific research; (2) build public understing of, support for, science Soil science examples Thomas, M., et al. (2016) Mobilising citizen scientists to monitor rapidly changing acid sulfate soils. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 140: National Biodiversity Network. (2013) Earthworm Records for Engl collected by Citizen Scientists in the OPAL Soil Earthworm Survey (March 2009 to November 2012).

18 The ideology Possible citizens 1 Consulting or research soil scientists agronomists 2 Farmers l managers 3 Civil engineers others involved in construction 4 Gardeners 5 Outdoor enthusiasts 6 Sport hunters 7 School teachers 8 Greens 9 Organizers These have different levels of expertise, interest, training needs, motivations...

19 The ideology for DSM specifics Aim is to provide useful information to improve digital soil maps poor or unverifiable observations are useless c.f. extensive quality control for ebird New data Field sampling within limits of citizen competence Provides more points for model building evaluation Especially useful in unsampled areas Revising existing products Reporting inconsistencies Densifying observations

20 The ideology Problems with citizen science for soil science / DSM 1 General public s low awareness of the soil resource (but this is improving) 2 Soil is not such an attractive resource (vs. birds, weather, water... ) 3 Collecting soil data requires dirtying one s hs walking through rough ground 4 Soil is mostly hidden, observation requires digging 5 Soil properties are not well-known, training is needed for effective observation

21 The ideology Challenges 1 how to compile easy protocols field guides which encourage broad participation; 2 what tools can best match citizens lscape perception allow reliable data capture; 3 what quality control evaluation mechanisms are appropriate to the type of citizen information they provide; 4 how to judge account for observer bias in both geographic feature spaces; 5 how to integrate data of heterogeneous nature (e.g., type precision of observation) quality; 6 how to use data of limited representativeness in ; 7 how to quantify the uncertainty of information provided unsystematically; 8 how to stimulate adaptive sampling in contentious areas (with contradictory information).

22 The ideology End