ISRIC-WISE International Soil Profile Data Set

April 1997

Dear Colleague,

Please find attached a copy of the ISRIC-WISE "international soil profile
data set". The relevant profile descriptions were selected from digital soil
data sets provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-
NRCS), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO-SDB) and the
International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC-ISIS);
these 1125 profiles are presented in the uniform and quality-
controlled format of ISRIC's World Inventory of Soil Emission
Potentials (WISE) database. The initial version of WISE was
developed at ISRIC with sponsorship from the Netherlands National
Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change
(Project 851039), and involved close collaboration with the above
organizations. 

The present subset, which is also known as the "Global Pedon Data Set", 
was created by ISRIC at the request of the Global Soil Data Task of
the IGBP - Data and Information System [see http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr:8000/igbp/].

The data set, with its documentation file (ISRIC_WP95/10b.PDF), can be
decompressed to any directory of your choice using installed using WinZip (R).

The data files (*.dbf) can be accessed using a range of commercially
available software (see Notes).

In order that we might broaden awareness of our services, ISRIC requests
that you acknowledge use of our data sets. Please refer to the data set
documentation for suggested form of acknowledgement and correct citation,
or contact ISRIC for further information. We also request that you send us
two reprints of any publication that cites the use of data received from our
Centre. This will help us to determine the type and level of use of the data
we distribute.


NOTES:
=====
- The database files (*.dbf) can be read with, or imported in, proprietary software packages
  such as FOXPRO, MS-Access, etc. Information about the primary keys may be
  found in the technical documentation (file: ISRIC_WP95/10b.PDF) 
- Values for Available Water Capacity (AWC) are for 1/3 bar to 15 bar (about
  pF2.5 to pF4.2; USDA standard).
- Detailed studies at the national level should be based on comprehensive
  sets of regionally representative soil profile descriptions, as
  obtainable from the national soil survey organizations. 
- The *.dbo (DOS) version of the WISE soil profile data handling software is no longer 
  included in the present ZIP-file.
