LandPotential.org

Landpotential.org is a global partnership committed to developing and supporting the adoption of freely available technology and tools for sustainable land use management, monitoring, and connecting people across the globe.

The Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) delivers tools and knowledge through apps and cloud computing in order to manage land to be productive, resilient, and healthy.

About Us

Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) allows the potential of land to be defined explicitly and dynamically for unique and constantly changing soil and climate conditions. The land potential assessments is updated based on new evidence regarding the success or failure of new management systems on different soils. Our knowledge engine, together with mobile phone applications and cloud computing technologies, also facilitates more rapid and complete integration of local and scientific knowledge into land management

Why a Land-Potential Knowledge System?

An understanding of land-potential can be used to determine where:

(1) Land is not meeting its productive potential (for all ecosystem services).

(2) Unrealistic expectations are driving unsustainable development investments.

(3) Proposed intensification is likely to lead to irreversible degradation.

LandPKS allows farmers, development organizations, extension workers and national governments to share, access and apply the best available knowledge and information at field, regional, and national scales. It allows land-potential to be defined explicitly and dynamically for unique and constantly changing soil and climate conditions, and to be updated based on new evidence about the success or failure of new management systems on different soils.

How Does It Work?

LandPKS uses mobile phone applications and analytical computing to:

•      Globalize access to knowledge and information about land potential for governments and communities.
•      Identify the knowledge and information to each type of land and soil.
•      Connect people with similar types of lands and challenges with each other.

LandPKS integrates existing natural resource databases with field data collection of knowledge and information using mobile phone technologies. Multiple sources of knowledge and information are accessed based on site-specific characteristics. Users measure soil depth (up to 120 cm) and provide a simple description of surface and subsurface texture, land cover and land use. Observations are made of slope, slope shape and general soil conditions.

Users will eventually have the opportunity to provide additional information through a tiered, iterative series of questions based on both their initial inputs and additional information (e.g., temperature, precipitation and elevation) which can be accessed using the GPS location provided by the mobile phone. Through further integration with information on local land management systems, a set of site-specific management options can be provided, with an indication of potential production, degradation resistance and resilience across a range of additional inputs.