Welcome to the Ethiopia Soil Organic Carbon Microdashboard
Soil organic carbon
Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle, and in regulating a number of ecosystem functions or services that we rely on for our survival. For example, it strongly determines the productivity and resilience of ecosystems, including agricultural systems. It regulates the water cycle by increasing water infiltration and storage capacity. And, it is critical for biodiversity below and above the soil surface. In other words, SOC is critical for life on earth. Today, SOC is ever more important given the changes human activities are having on the climate of the planet and the fact that through better management of the land, or by conserving natural systems, SOC sequestration can help contribute to mitigating these effects.
About this microdashboard
This microdashboard allows you to explore soil organic carbon (SOC) maps for a number of woredas defined by IFAD in Ethiopia. The SOC maps are based on satellite data and machine learning models trained on soil samples collected as part of the LDSF. The maps show the predicted SOC content in the topsoil (0-20 cm) in 2022 to 2023. The SOC content is expressed in g/kg (grams per kilogram) of soil.
Landsat 8 and Sentinel 1 satellite imagery were used to train the predictive model for SOC. The SOC maps are intended to provide an overview of the spatial distribution of SOC content in Ethiopia and to support decision-making in the context of sustainable land management and climate change mitigation, for example.
Soil analysis
The soil samples used to train the predictive model for SOC in this microdashboard are analysed using dry-combustion and mid-infrared spectroscopy. This ensures a high level of reproducibility of results, which is critical for model performance and mapping applications.
Key resources
The LDSF website
The LDSF website provides information on the framework, indicators, its implementation and the data collected. This is the sampling framework used to collect the soil samples for the SOC maps.
Publications
The LDSF has been applied in many studies. You can find more details here, including papers on the modeling of SOC content in Ethiopia.
LDSF field manual
The LDSF field manual takes you through how to implement the framework in the field. The link below lets you download the manual (pdf format).
