This International Standard describes how to digitally exchange soil-related data. It aims to facilitate the
exchange of valid, clearly described and specified soil-related data between individuals and organizations via
digital systems and enables any soil data producer, holder or user to find and transfer data in an unambiguous
way.

This International Standard contains definitions of features, several parameter specifications and encoding
rules that allow consistent and retrievable data exchange. It also allows to explicitly geo-reference soil data by
building on existing ISO standards, thus facilitating the use of soil data within geographical information
systems (GIS). Because soil data are of various origin and obtained according to a huge variety of description
and classification systems, this International Standard provides no attribute catalogue, but a flexible approach
to the unified encoding of soil data by implementing the rules of ISO 19156-2 observations and measurements
(O & M) for the use in soil science. Figure 1 shows the fluxes of soil data, generic to many kinds of
applications in relation to the work of ISO/TC 190 Soil Quality, that can be organized by using the rules of this
International standard.