Organizational Setting
FAO Azerbaijan Partnership and Liaison Office, in close cooperation with the government and its in-line Ministries/Agencies, contributes to the sustainable agri-food systems, and supports the government with addressing issues food security, agriculture and rural development, natural resource management in the country. FAOโs technical assistance, provided mainly through projects, includes institution building, development of knowledge and competencies, and exchange of experience among FAO member countries.
Reporting Lines
Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Azerbaijan, the programmatic guidance and direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative, and the technical guidance of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO), the National Specialist on Digital Soil Mapping will work in close coordination with the National Project Coordinator and project team (national and international consultants).
Technical Focusย
The National Consultant on Digital Soil Mapping will provide technical expertise in the systematization, calibration, and validation of soil data, ensuring the development of high-resolution digital soil property and suitability maps. The Specialist will also support capacity-building efforts by delivering training sessions on digital soil mapping techniques, data harmonization, and GIS-based soil assessments in alignment with international standards.
Tasks and responsibilities
โข ย ย Provide overall control over data collection, systematization and harmonisation of soil maps, datasets,
โข ย ย Make calibrations and cross validations of existing soil maps (hard copies)ย
โข ย ย Contribute to the Az SIS spatial data infrastructure design and preparationย
โข ย ย Selection of input data, predictors and for national digital soil maps
โข ย ย Determine the software tools, modules, scripts and data for producing of digital soil maps
โข ย ย Support the training sessions on soil survey and data collection
โข ย ย Deliver training sessions on digital soil mapping, data preparation, harmonisation, as well as trainings to the the national staff on digital soil mapping techniques and producing the soil property maps and to guide the development of the soil suitability case studies
โข ย ย Quality assessment and quality check of collected soil data, information and analyses
โข ย ย Conduct evaluation, validation, preparation and harmonisation of national soil profile database
โข ย ย Guidance in preparation of high resolution (100-250m) digital soil maps of soil properties and threats and uncertainty assessments
โข ย ย Consultations and guidance in producing of digital soil property and uncertainty maps using the recent Digital Soil Mapping techniques and tools
โข ย ย Guidance in preparation of soil suitability maps for selected crops
โข ย ย Validation of the output of digital soil property and threat maps processing on test sites
โข ย ย Control work in preparation of the soil risk and soil suitability maps
โข ย ย Development of symbology for national soil maps and national soil grids of soil properties
โข ย ย Support the validation of national digital soil maps
โข ย ย Participating in preparation of soil suitability maps for different agricultural crops
โข ย ย Assistance in preparation of meta data for all produced GIS layers compatible with GloSIS and INSPIRE data standards
CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
Minimum Requirements
โข ย ย Advanced university degree in agricultural sciences, soil science or related field and focus on spatial data analyses, data science, geostatistics, digital soil mapping
โข ย ย Minimum 5 years of experience in digital soil mapping, environmental modelling, spatial data analyses
โข ย ย Working knowledge (level C) of English
โข ย ย National of Azerbaijan or resident of the country with valid work permit
FAO Core Competencies
โข ย ย Results Focus
โข ย ย Teamwork
โข ย ย Communication
โข ย ย Building Effective Relationships
โข ย ย Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement
Technical/Functional Skills
โข ย ย Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
โข ย ย Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and partners developing effective working relationships
โข ย ย Experience with UN system is considered an asset.