SoilSCAN: Soils, Science and Community ActioN

东非农业社区在粮食和饲料生产率方面面临着复杂的挑战。初级生产系统面临压力，营养选择正在发生变化，发展与农业的关系正在发生深刻变化。面对严重的水土流失威胁，东非农牧系统正接近一个临界点，以证据为主导的可持续土地管理干预措施扭转支持粮食和水安全的自然资源退化的迫切性前所未有。然而，一个关键的障碍是缺乏高空间分辨率的土壤健康数据，而收集这些信息超出了传统的研究手段。我们将测试是否可以通过一个协调的公民科学计划来弥合这一数据鸿沟。目前可利用的便携技术是手持土壤扫描仪，使农民能够成为公民科学家，有权收集数据，建立支持关键景观决策的研究数据库。其目的是测试使用土壤扫描仪作为绘制整个社区土壤特征的工具的潜力，其分辨率超过常规研究的分辨率，最终目的是提供研究，使利益攸关方能够创建可持续的社区景观规划。

East African farming communities face complex challenges regarding food and feed productivity. Primary production systems are under stress, nutritional choices are changing and the relationship between development and agriculture is undergoing profound transformation. In the face of severe threat of soil erosion, East African agro-pastoral systems are approaching a tipping point and there has never been a greater urgency for evidence-led sustainable land management interventions to reverse degradation of natural resources that support food and water security. A key barrier, however, is a lack of high spatial resolution soil health data wherein collecting such information is beyond conventional research means. We will test if bridging this data gap can be achieved through a coordinated citizen science programme. Accessible and portable technology is currently available in the form of hand-held soil scanners that can enable farmers to become citizen scientists empowered to collect data to establish research data bases that support critical landscape decisions. The aim is to test the potential for using soil scanners as a tool for mapping whole community soil characteristics at a resolution beyond that achievable in conventional research, with the ultimate objective to deliver research that empowers stakeholders to create a sustainable community landscape plan.