LandPKS Toolbox: Open-source mobile app tools for sustainable land management

L and use planning and implementation of productive, sustainable land management practices requires careful matching of land use with its sustainable land potential at the field and even sub-field scale (FAO 2022). Sustainable land potential is defined as the potential of the land to generate ecosystem services for current and future generations (United Nations Environment Programme and International Resource Panel 2016). Appropriate matching of land use with land potential requires accurate, site-specific knowledge of land, including information on its long-term potential (based on inherent properties like texture, minerology, and slope), current condition (e.g., fertility, soil organic matter content, vegetation cover), and expected response to disturbances (e.g., management, climate). When land managers lack access to such information and knowledge, they are less likely to make informed management decisions that ensure long-term sustainability. To bridge this information gap, the Land Potential Knowledge System mobile application (LandPKS) was created with the goal of providing location-specific information on land potential that farmers and other land managers can use to make informed management decisions (Herrick et al. 2013, 2016). However, awareness of the availability of this free, open-source app with access to both US and global soil information remains low. The objective of this paper is to describe the app, with a focus on the recently released “Toolbox” feature. LandPKS is a free, open-source smartphone app available for both iOS and Android mobile devices, and is downloadable from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. LandPKS consists of a suite of modules that integrate user-collected soil and site data with cloud-based global databases and models to constrain the uncertainty of information needed to guide land management decisions at local scales. LandPKS is used across the globe to record and access locationspecific information and currently has over 30,000 user-recorded “Sites” (i.e., a geolocated record in the app created and saved by users) (figure 1a). Historically, most LandPKS data collection tools and model outputs were only accessible by creating a LandPKS Site. While this system works well for cases where users want to record and save geolocated information, there are additional use cases where nongeolocated information is desired (e.g., teaching or collecting data outside of the LandPKS App), or where a user only seeks to temporarily view geolocated data. Since effective decision making requires access to the most relevant information about a management question or concern, recent efforts to support flexible management have focused on the development of virtual “Toolboxes” (i.e., collections of digital tools for data/ information/knowledge generation/dissemination) that allow users to access the data and information most relevant to their objectives (Kachergis et al. 2022; Ziadat et al. 2021). In response to these user needs, LandPKS has added a virtual Toolbox, containing standalone tools that can be directly accessed and used without a Site record. This allows for users to skip the Site-creation process, which can be time consuming, when not necessary for their work. The LandPKS Toolbox consists of three main groups of tools that can be used for (1) measuring soil properties (Texture Guide, Soil Color), (2) accessing soil reference materials (Soil Health Methods, Soil Conservation Technologies [WOCAT]), and (3) generating/accessing site-specific modeled information (SoilID, Climate, Available Water-Holding Capacity [AWC] and Infiltration Calculation) (figure 1b). All of the standalone app tools can be accessed on LandPKS’s “Tools” screen (figure 1b), and several of the location-specific data tools (i.e., SoilID, Climate) are Jonathan J. Maynard is a soil scientist in the Sustainability Innovation Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Sabina Maniak is a research assistant in the Sustainability Innovation Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Laura Hamrick is communications and research coordinator in the Sustainability Innovation Lab, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. George Peacock is a LandPKS consultant, Texas. Sarah E. McCord is an ecologist at the Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Jeffrey E. Herrick is a soil scientist at the Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Received September 27, 2022. also accessible through an interactive map (“Map” screen) where users can manually scroll, zoom, and tap on locations to retrieve soil and climate data (figure 1c). In this paper, we provide an overview of the new tools and features available in the LandPKS virtual Toolbox and highlight some of its potential applications. The title of each section indicates whether the tool is only accessible though the Tools menu, or through both Tools and the Map view.