Soil health is foundational to sustainable agriculture, water resource management, and climate mitigation. However, the effectiveness of global soil health efforts is constrained by fragmented, inconsistent, and often inaccessible soil datasets. To address this, Varda has developed SoilHive, an interactive platform that aggregates and harmonizes soil data from various global sources, promoting open access and collaboration.

SoilHive is a central open repository, integrating and harmonizing diverse datasets to provide a comprehensive overview of soil data in any region. This benefits researchers, the private sector, multilateral organizations, and policymakers. The platform’s Data Availability Framework assesses the spatial distribution of soil data, aggregates it at multiple resolutions, identifies underserved areas, and guides targeted efforts to address data gaps. This approach encourages users to contribute data, fostering a culture of sharing and collaboration.

To further expand soil data access and facilitate soil data exchange, SoilHive has been developing ad hoc tools for data management and dissemination within research and collaborative projects. A private data hub enables stakeholders to securely share and access proprietary data, addressing privacy and intellectual property concerns while promoting interoperability and reusability. Each hubs allow organizations to share soil data for specific project durations while ensuring the discoverability of their metadata as well as access to to SoilHive’s broader dataset. Upon project completion, data can be released to the public domain via SoilHive.

In alignment with its broader mission, SoilHive also contributes directly to the EU-funded DeepHorizon project by enhancing data management and promoting data sharing and discoverability. This initiative involves extending existing ontologies to incorporate subsoil domains and functions, facilitating data sharing among diverse stakeholders, and creating the first European-level subsoil dataset. Furthermore, SoilHive enhances its capabilities to improve the discovery of subsoil data, including the ability to search at the horizon level.

In conclusion, SoilHive democratizes access to existing soil data while respecting data provenance and owner rights, fostering international collaboration and innovation. By engaging with both public and private entities, SoilHive enhances the breadth of available soil data, supporting global innovation and increasing our shared understanding of the soil system.