"This state-of-the-art database was established by IIASA and FAO in partnership with:

• ISRIC-World Soil Information which, together with the FAO, contributed recent regional soil and terrain databases together with the WISE soil profile database;
• The European Soil Bureau Network, which provided its major new update of soil information for Europe and northern Eurasia; and
• The Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which made available its most recent 1:1,000,000 scale Soil Map of China.

About HWSD

HWSD has two main goals:

• To increase the quantity and quality of data available by capturing data at a grid cell size of 30 arc seconds of longitude and latitude (approximately, l km);
• To harmonize and expand soil attribute information (texture, composition) with recently collected soil data."