Scientific qualification
Degree in Environmental Science, Soil conservation and protection, achieved on 25/10/1999 at the Cà
Foscari University of Venice, Faculty of SS.MM.FF.NN. with 106/110 marks.
Expert in Thematic Cartography and Geographic Information Systems (RT 20010150) – European
Qualifications Framework, Level 4, achieved on 09/09/2004 at the Università degli Studi di Siena, Bachelor
of Science in Geological Sciences - Regione Toscana.
Training Course on topographic base. Rating: Distinct. Achieved 19/01/2006 at the Università degli Studi di
Siena, Centre for Geothechnologies.
Fields of scientific interest
Soil conservation and protection with the use of GIS tools; geographic information systems; geodatabase;
WebGIS; Open-source relational database management system (RDBMS); soil database; climatic database;
Climate changes; environmental reports; greenhouse gas emissions modeling (Carbon footprint); Life-cycle
assessment of cropping systems. Expertise in the soil science field survey (orientation, soil sampling and
description) and with innovative instruments (inductive sensor Electromagnetic Geonics EM38-MK2, Veris
Sensor 2000Xa, gamma ray Spectrometer "The Mole", Spectroradiometer - FieldSpec 3, Eijkelkam ECprobe).
Opening Soil Data through Semantics and Linked Vocabularies
The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is the internationally recognized classification system for soils. The WRB is commonly used to classify soil profiles and generate maps of soil distribution. However, it's still not available in an open standard and machine readable format; instead, it is published in textual reports and its encoding in data and metadata is left to users. As a result, data artifacts using the WRB show a wide variety of structures and approaches to versioning, which interfere with proper exchange and integration. This problem applies to soil data as well as to other datasets and domains that relate to soil science, from natural and physical to social and climate sciences. We discuss the usage of the WRB classification while applying principles of openness, interoperability and semantic correctness, meant to support reliable data exchange in science and, ultimately, better informed policy and decision making.
