The Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS) project spans three distinct phases from 2019 to 2027, with social research and impact activities integrated throughout:
Phase 1: Visualising Australasia’s Soils – Development of an interoperable spatial knowledge system through the Soil CRC.
Phase 2: Visualising Australasia’s Soils – Expansion of the soil data federation to enhance accessibility and integration.
Phase 3: Visualising Australasia’s Soils – Building a lasting legacy to support future soil knowledge and innovation.
Extensive engagement and collaboration activities have been undertaken during Phases 1 and 2 to understand stakeholder expectations, usage and expectations, and to understand the broader impacts of VAS. Research impact initiatives are scheduled for Phase 3, with a focus on 2026.
Social engagement activities commenced in early 2019 to support partner engagement and identify use cases to inform the development and delivery of VAS during Phase 1. These collaborative activities provided a baseline for understanding stakeholder expectations and intended uses of the VAS soil data federation, offering a reference point for assessing its future impact.
Extensive engagement with VAS project partners (including farmer groups and catchment managers) identified the value proposition of VAS across diverse stakeholders including farmers, advisors, grower groups and catchment managers. Feedback consistently highlighted strong demand for a trusted, supported, and web-based spatial soil data management system tailored to user needs.
Stakeholders emphasised the importance of intuitive tools that make soil data relevant to specific geographic contexts and useful for decision-making. A recurring theme was the need to integrate contextual data—such as paddock histories, treatments, yields, and climate records—alongside soil data. This integration would enable decision-support tools to be automatically populated with current, meaningful information, enhancing usability and impact.
However, a significant challenge remains: encouraging data custodians to share their datasets within the VAS portal. Concerns around data sensitivity and trust were identified as priorities to be addressed to ensure broad participation. Three key areas of stakeholder feedback informed the design and development of VAS to meet user needs and expectations. These include:
1. Free Access to a Trusted Soil Data System. A secure, supported, web-based platform to:
Store, manage and retrieve soil data with easy data entry and export options
Visualise and share data through graphs, filters, and downloadable reports
Improve data quality using metadata and standardisation tools
Monitor soil trends over time and benchmark farms or regions
Combine datasets to explore soil properties across locations
Catalogue non-soil data, including documents, images, videos, and trial results
Quickly find relevant soil information to respond to member or stakeholder queries
2. Locally Relevant Data for Strategic Use and empowering organisations with:
Evidence for funding proposals and identifying research gaps
Insights into data usage and enabling new collaborations
Efficient reporting to funders and investors
On-demand access to metrics for monitoring and evaluation
3. Community Support & Decision Tools and enhancing services for members and communities through:
Region-specific educational resources and training
Alerts for pests, diseases, and climate events
Access to broader environmental data, including groundwater, forecasts, and terrain
Individual farm logins for managing soil and agricultural data (e.g. yield maps, NDVI, paddock records)
Independent calculators for soil additives, variable rate applications, and response curves
Decision-support tools for managing soil constraints (e.g. salinity, sodicity, organic matter)
Farm-scale carbon and water budget calculators
Best practice metrics to support social licence to operate
These outcomes were reported by Sexton (2020) with findings used to inform the design of the technical system and information model.
VAS Phase 1 project outputs, including the social engagement report (Sexton, 2020) is available via the Soil CRC website: https://soilcrc.com.au/resources/visualising-australasias-soils/
During VAS Phase 2, research was conducted using social research methods to examine project partners’ experiences with VAS, their use of the platform, and the challenges and opportunities associated with soil data sharing through VAS. The research was guided by the following questions:
How is VAS being used and has it met expectations?
What are the opportunities for data sharing through VAS?
What are the barriers for data sharing data through VAS?
How can data sharing be facilitated using VAS?
What features / functions of VAS have facilitated and/or reduced data sharing?
Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with staff from 14 partner organisations at two time points - 2022 and 2024 - corresponding to the first and final years of VAS Phase 2. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts (Figure 1) revealed a strong appreciation for the value of a federated soil data system, while also acknowledging the complexity of the task and the challenges involved, including the technical intricacies of soil data and concerns around data custodianship and sharing.
Figure 1.
Themes and ideas identified through analysis of interviews with project partners (N = 14).
Anticipation and support for VAS
There is widespread anticipation for VAS and recognition of its practical benefits in soil data storage, access, and sharing. The vision for VAS is broadly supported, with stakeholders acknowledging its potential to generate new knowledge and drive industry advancement.
“I've been fortunate to see it (VAS) develop from its inception, so I guess I kind of knew what its capability was, and I guess my expectation was that it was functional and usable, which it is. So, I guess it has met those expectations.” — Interview participant
Challenges with Adoption
Despite its potential, several persistent challenges limit VAS’s full realisation as a national soil data federation. Adoption of VAS is varied among partners, with ongoing concerns about sharing sensitive and private (farmer) data and establishing trust in the system. Additionally, the complexity of soil data presents integration challenges.
“It needs contextual information around the soil data so that we can say if it’s in a permanent pasture or whether it's under tree lines or if its intensive management or has had ten tonnes of lime put on it or whatever. It needs that next level of management data to provide context for soil data interpretation.” — Interview participant).
Significant Opportunities for VAS
The creation of a national soil data federation through VAS offers substantial opportunities to generate new insights and inform agricultural practices. Phase 3 will focus on developing a clear value proposition, use cases, and governance models to support data sharing.
“…it'd just be so nice for us to have a single point where everything's housed and make us realise where our gaps are in terms of what we're recording and how we're recording it. Which is a good thing and possibly highlight some of our shortcomings.” —Interview participant
Improving Communication and Engagement
Enhancing communication with project partners was identified as a key area for improvement. Establishing exemplars of VAS use and application will assist with building a community of practice and demonstrate its value to organisations, members, and the broader industry.
“… have examples of what's being developed, what's new (with VAS). What are people using it for and then probably some face to face like at the start of the project.” — Interview participant
The research findings emphasise the need to further develop and clearly communicate the value proposition of VAS as an intuitive, web-based portal for spatial soil data management. Project partners consistently expressed a strong desire for a trusted and well-supported system that enables efficient access, storage, and sharing of soil data.
To realise this vision, it is essential that VAS continues to be actively supported and utilised by both data providers and consumers. Sustained engagement and adoption are critical to its success as a national soil data federation.
Phase 3 of VAS prioritises extensive activities aimed at delivering meaningful outcomes for users. These efforts are being shaped through ongoing consultation, co-design, and targeted communication strategies (Figure 2), ensuring that the system evolves in alignment with user needs and expectations.
Figure 2.
Approaches to engage users and increase adoption of VAS
As Phase 3 of VAS commenced in late 2024 and the federation of soil data moves toward full realisation, the research focus will also evolve. This next phase of research will document the sector-wide impacts associated with the development and adoption of a sustainable, enduring portal for soil data federation. It will provide evidence of VAS’s impact on knowledge generation, decision-making, and innovation across the agricultural industry.
In Phase 3, impact research activities will continue, documenting the social impact of the soil data federation and web portal “using multidisciplinary research that employs survey instruments, expert reference groups, and internet analytics to explore the extent to which the web portal has supported decision making by participants, governments, industry, researchers and the community (Funding application: Visualising Australasia’s Soils: Building a Legacy; Major investment round 7, p. 16)
Visualising Australasia’s Soils - Social engagement and collaboration learnings (2020)
Visualising Australasia’s Soils (2.3.001) - Final report (2021)
Full research output listing
Ollerenshaw, A., Dahlhaus, P., Thompson, H., & Staines, C. (2025). The Opportunities and Challenges Associated With Establishing a National Soil Data Repository From Public and Private Actors. Soil Use Manage, 41: e70075. doi.org/10.1111/sum.70075
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