WDS Members’ Forum

A 1-day WDS Members’ Forum will be organized before each WDS Conference. The Forum will be organized by the WDS-IPO and WDS-SC, and will include a Scientific Session and a Plenary Session. The Scientific Session will be an opportunity for WDS Members to report on their activities and engage with other Members. The Plenary Session will provide a formal mechanism for membership consultation, where Membership issues can be discussed. WDS Members will be invited by the WDS-IPO to submit any questions, concerns, or complaints to be discussed at least 6 months prior to the Plenary Session.

Trusted broker of soil information

ISRIC is the World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils) since 1989 and a regular member of the ICSU World Data System (ICSU WDS) since 2011. In that capacity we provide a focus for soil-related collections and information services. An important element of our work is the data rescue program, aimed at safeguarding older (legacy) data (maps, reports, point data) which may be at risk of loss or deterioration, and digitizing these materials. These and newer materials provided by our partners provide the 'raw' input for further processing in the World Soil Information Service (WoSIS). Subsequent to successive stages of quality control, standardisation and harmonisation, selected datasets are served freely to the international community, in accord with the licence specified by each data provider.

A progress report discussing main activities of ISRIC WDC-Soils during 2014-2016 was presented at the WDS Members Forum 2016 (SciDataCon2016, Sept. 2016, Denver, USA). This procedure is part of the biennial certification procedure of regular members of ICSU-WDS.

12 Oct 2016

2016 Members' Forum Takes Place in Denver

Approximately 100 people, including nearly 70 WDS Member Representatives, attended the 2016 WDS Members' Forum on Sunday, 11 September 2016 in Denver Colorado. This biennial WDS business meeting gave updates on the endeavours of the ICSU World Data System, as well as information on opportunities to adopt the outputs of WDS Working Groups. The 2016 Members' Forum page has now been updated with photos, all presentations, and a corrected participants list.

Interaction among participants and with the WDS Scientific Committee was paramount, and was facilitated by an extended poster presentation and help desk session, as well as a lively discussion on the financial sustainability of data services. A dedicated webpage has been created to showcase the excellent posters presented at the Forum by WDS Member Organizations, highlighting some of their successes and challenges over the previous two years.

The WDS Scientific Committee would like to express its thanks to all Member Representatives and guests who participated in the Forum—especially, those who gave oral and poster presentations—and thus contributed to the huge success of this event.