ИСТИНА

Soil information exchange at the international level requires joint activities of national data centers to ensure compatibility of data obtained from different sources. Data harmonization is considered as a phenomenon with 4 different aspects. First, standardization is the development of a conceptual and object models for soil data and elaboration on this basis of the standard of their presentation. Secondly, development of a range of software products and data processing technologies, that support and facilitate conversion to standards for existing or newly introduced data. Developed software can be used to address fundamental scientific and pedagogical objectives ("Maxi") as well as for solution of applied tasks ("mini") in accordance with national specifics. Thirdly, creation of information structures and exchange protocols including the distributed network where harmonization process can be implemented and used. And the fourth, calculation and evaluation in achieving practical results, e.g., calculation of any soil property, compatibility should be ensured only for this property, however, accompanied with comparability of the algorithms, in other words, the harmonization at model and metadata level, formulas and calculation parameters. The standard is considered as a unity of conceptual, object and process models. Current status in standardization is described with examples for each aspect.