XIEG Holds 60th Salon for Scientific Exchange

On July 24, the Department of International Cooperation of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (XIEG), held the 60th Salon for Scientific Exchange (SSE), featuring Dr. Shamsollah Ayoubi, Professor at the Isfahan University of Technology. The event drew over 30 researchers and graduate students from XIEG.

Prof. Shamsollah Ayoubi delivered a presentation titled “From Soil Survey to Soil Intelligence: Integrating Pedology, Remote Sensing, and Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Soil Management”. He outlined a cutting-edge framework that fuses traditional pedology with geospatial technologies, remote sensing, and data-driven methods.

He emphasized that addressing land degradation and resource constraints in arid and semi‑arid regions demands a “Smart Soil” paradigm, which leverages explainable AI to transform massive soil sensing data into actionable intelligence for precision agriculture and sustainable land stewardship.

During the discussion session, participants explored applications of advanced AI‑based soil interpretation to desertification control, salinity monitoring, and ecological restoration across Xinjiang and Central Asia.

XIEG researchers and Prof. Shamsollah Ayoubi’s team have previously collaborated on assessing degraded soil quality in drylands, yielding notable results in salinity prediction and erosion quantification using magnetic susceptibility, infrared spectroscopy, and remote sensing data. This salon further deepened the bilateral partnership in smart soil mapping and ecological management, while providing a platform for the integration of diverse academic perspectives.

Prof. Shamsollah Ayoubi is a Visiting Scientist at XIEG under the CAS President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI). He has more than 25 years of experience in teaching, research, and academic leadership, and has achieved significant international recognition with an h-index of 59 and more than 10,200 citations on Google Scholar. His scientific achievements have been recognized through several awards, including being listed among the top 2% of scientists worldwide in Earth Sciences.

Prof. Shamsollah Ayoubidelivers his presentation. (Image by XIEG)

Contact

HUANG

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography

E-mail: zlhuang@ms.xjb.ac.cn

Web: http://english.egi.cas.cn