                ! 12 Open-Access Soil Information and Soil Classifier System Dániel Balla Marianna Zichar Zoltán Kovács Gábor Sándor György Szabó Tibor Novák Abstract — The aim of the study is to introduce the establishment of a public web based soil information and classification system and to describe its current status. The classification is based on the WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources), the correlation system of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). Users with various authorizations are able to gain access to the web-based portal and system providing them different kinds of activities. The visual representation of soil data is geovisualized with the help of KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files by WMS (Web Map Service) for every user. The algorithm of the WRB classification has been coded and implemented into the system according to the following groups: Cryosol, Solonetz, Vertisol, and Solonchak. Key Words — WRB, kml, soil classification, open-access, soil parameters, information system I. INTRODUCTION The need for soil information has increased significantly in recent years [8]. Web-based environmental information systems and soil databases (global and regional) have been established with the purpose of satisfying these requirements. While most of the data of the global systems are accessible, in several cases users still cannot gain access to numerous (primarily regional) soil data [5], [11]. Furthermore, soil classification is not based on consistent principles. The main reason for this is the difficult assimilation and harmonization of the various classification systems of countries with the international systems [3], [9], [10]. The requirements of the rapidly evolving global infrastructure for spatial information cannot be met even by the developed countries regarding soil data [14]. For the above listed access restrictions, it became necessary to establish a public based, freely accessible and useable web-based soil database and automated classification system [12]. Furthermore, we aim to establish an innovative classification mechanism which would meet the data-information requirements and use a pedagogical parameter list. The classification is based on the WRB, the official correlation system of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). The soil classification system uses quantitative and qualitative data as well. Therefore, we are able to represent the process of classification and to optimize the result with decision processes. This requires the algorithmization of the reference groups according to the previously defined parameter list [6], [11]. Instead of the harmonization of national soil classification units, it uses the original soil survey data for the identification of different WRB units, according to the method proposed by Waltner (2010) and Michéli (2006). The disadvantages of the method are that the establishment of the algorithm is time-consuming and the errors emerging from the different methods can be eliminated only to a certain degree. Its advantage is that after having established a system, practically unlimited number of soil units can be classified automatically, therefore the analysis of large data bases is not a challenge any more. II. METHODS The basic function of a web-based soil classification system is to provide digital access to the data stored in it [1]. According to the previous statement our main purpose is to store soil data in a soil database, and also to display and classify them by a service catalogue. The reasonable way to achieve this task is to establish user groups having different authorizations. Since our data have geospatial components, it is a natural requirement to geovisualize them for example, with the help of a web map service. During the selection process of developing tools, we attempted to prefer open-source, cost-effective therefore widely used software products. The free access and downloading were also important aspects. The application has been developed by using PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor), JavaScript programming and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) languages. The user interface is provided by the free web template of Medialoot, which was modified in accordance with the requirements. The database is hosted by the database management system of the MySQL Databases. The visual representation of the soil sections are based on KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files. As a result, our system supports the geovisualization and sharing of soil profiles with other users in a web map (Google Maps) [15]. III. ACTORS AND PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT The system currently serves 3 actors: Administrator, Classifier and Guest (Figure 1). The common function of the above three groups is the access of data. The Administrator and the Classifier are both able to upload/classify data, however, the last one can only classify and update their own data. The Administrator has additional two privileges including the user management (creating new users with Classifer access right) and database maintaining with full access. This last one is necessary for creating new fields in the case of integration of further reference groups. Fig. 1. Actors and grants