🌱 Soil Grids Downloader

Version: 0.1 (Initial Release) Compatible with QGIS 3.x and above

The Soil Grids Downloader is a QGIS plugin designed to simplify the process of downloading and visualizing soil properties derived from SoilGrids.org.
It enables users to extract soil attributes such as clay, sand, silt, soil organic carbon (SOC), and nitrogen content for specific points or shapefile datasets — all within QGIS.

🌍 Key Features

🧩 Soil Properties for Shapefile of Points

Select an existing shapefile with point geometry (projection EPSG:4326 – WGS 84).
Retrieve and attach soil properties (clay, sand, silt, SOC, nitrogen) to each point.
The output shapefile includes new fields representing the selected soil properties.

🗺️ On-the-Fly Soil Properties

Click on the QGIS map to select a location and automatically view soil data.
The projection crs should be 4326
Quickly copy results to clipboard with a single button.

🧪 Accessing Test Data

Includes preloaded test data for quick demonstration and exploration.

⚙️ Installation

Open QGIS.
Navigate to Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins.
Search for “Soil Grids Downloader”.
Click Install Plugin.

✅ No additional installations or dependencies are required — just install and start using.

📊 Supported Soil Properties

Currently supported soil attributes (depth range: 5–15 cm):

Clay content
Sand content
Silt content
Soil Organic Carbon (SOC)
Nitrogen content

Future versions will expand the available properties and depth ranges.

🚦 Fair Use Policy and Limitations

The plugin retrieves data via the SoilGrids REST API, which enforces a Fair Use Policy:

Limit: Up to 5 API calls per minute
Exceeding this limit may cause temporary delays or processing errors
Recommended for moderate workloads and small datasets

Both the Soil Grids Downloader and the SoilGrids API are currently in beta, meaning: - Occasional downtime or performance issues may occur
- Compatibility with future versions of the API or plugin is not guaranteed

Despite these limitations, the plugin provides a solid foundation for soil data exploration and analysis.

🧩 Development & Maintenance

This is the first demo version of the plugin.
Ongoing development will focus on: - Supporting more soil properties and depth ranges
- Improving UI responsiveness and data handling
- Enhancing API communication and error reporting

Contributions, feedback, and issue reports are highly encouraged to improve future releases.

📘 Full documentation is available on Read the Docs for detailed usage instructions, examples, and developer guidelines.

📜 License

This project is released under an open-source license.
You may freely use, modify, and share the plugin in accordance with the provided license terms.

📬 Contact

For feedback, bug reports, or feature requests: - Open an issue in this repository, or
- Contact the developer via the QGIS Plugin Repository page.