History

Overview of PM activities

The working Group on Pedometrics (PM) was established at the World Congress of Soil Science in Kyoto, Japan, 1990. From then on, PM has organized a number of meetings:

  • 2015, 14-18 September, Córdoba (Spain). Pedometrics 2015.
  • 2013, August 26 – 31. Nairobi, Kenya. Pedometrics 2013. 
  • 2012, April 10-13, Sydney, Australia. 5th Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping.
  • 2011, August 30-Sep 11. Trest, Czech republic. Pedometrics 2011.
  • 2010, May 24-26, Rome, Italy. 4th International Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping. “From Digital Soil Mapping to Digital soil Assment: identifying key gaps from fields to continents”.
  • 2009, August 26-28, Beijing. Pedometrics 2009 “One World, One Soil”.
  • 2008, Sept 30 – Oct 2, Logan, Utah. 3rd Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping (DSM 2008 USA), Proceedings were published as a book: “Digital Soil Mapping: Bridging Research, Environmental Application, and Operation.” Springer, Progress in Soil Science
  • 2007, August 27-30. Tubingen, Germany. Pedometrics 2007.
  • 2006, July 4-7, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 2nd Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping. The proceedings were published as a Book: Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data. Springer
  • 2005, September 12-14, Naples, Florida, USA. Pedometrics 2005. The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma.
  • 2004, September 14-17, Montpellier, France. Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping. The proceedings were published as a Book: Digital Soil Mapping. An Introductory Perspective. Developments in Soil Science Vol. 31.
  • 2003, September 11-12, Reading, UK. Pedometrics 2003. The proceedings were published as a Special issue of Geoderma (2005, Volume 128, Issues 3-4).
  • 2001, September 19-21, Gent, Belgium. Pedometrics 2001. The proceedings were published as a Special issue of Geoderma(2003, Volume 112, Issues 3-4).
  • 1999, September 27-29, Sydney, Australia: Pedometrics 1999. The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma (2001, Volume 103, Issue 1-2: 1-229).
  • 1998, August 19, Montpellier, France: One-day Symposium on “Soil Geostatistics”, prior to the World Congress on Soil Science. The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma (2000, Vol. 97, Nos. 3-4: 1-424).
  • 1997, August 18-20, Madison (Wisconsin), U.S.A.: Pedometrics 1997. The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma (1999, Vol. 89, Nos. 1-2: 1-175).
  • 1996, August 7-9, Wageningen, The Netherlands: “Soil and Water Quality at Different Scales” (together with the Working Groups on Soil and Moisture Variability, and Soil Pollution). The proceedings have been published as a Special Issue of Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (1998, Vol. 50, Nos. 1-3: 1-324).
  • 1995, October 30, St. Louis, U.S.A.: “Fuzzy sets in soil science”. The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma (1997, Vol. 77, Nos. 2-4: 85-339).
  • 1992, September 1-3, Wageningen, The Netherlands, Pedometrics-92 The proceedings were published as a Special Issue of Geoderma (1994, Vol. 62, Nos. 1-3: 1-326).

 

Historical documents

On October 7 of 1987, Dr. J. J. de Gruijter and Dr. A. B. McBratney sent  a three pages letter to Dr. W. C. Sombroek, Secretary-General of the International Society of Soil Sciences (ISSS) to discuss the possibility of setting up a Working Group on Pedometrics (PM) within the ISSS. In response to this request, the Executive Committee of the ISSS, during its mid-term meeting in Alma Ata, USSR, september 18, 1988 agreed to the establishment, on a provisional basis, of a “Working Group on Pedometrics” (WG/TM). This is their confirmation letter sent by Dr. W. C. Sombroek.

Pedometrics is much based on the work of Alex McBratney’s. Here you can access the annotated handwritten draft of a letter sent by Alex to the ISSS requesting to establish a Pedometrics Working Group. Down-below you can see Alex’s lecture notes of his first course on pedometrics developed in 1986 “Introduction to Pedometrics“. Many ideas from this lecture notes are still inspiring.