Soil classification is a difficult issue and requires many years of study under the guidance of experienced teachers. In the course of long-term studies and field research, soil scientists acquire the skills of recognizing and correctly naming many important features resulting from litho- anthropo- or pedogenic processes. The problem with learning the secrets of this craft is the lack of opportunity to see many examples of different soil features hidden under the earth's surface. Traveling around many regions of the World for didactic or scientific purposes, we felt the need to share our photographic collections with other people involved in the study and interpretation of the soil environment. It is with great pleasure that we can present to the reader a set of several hundred photographs showing the features, properties, soil horizons, as well as examples of interpretation of entire soil profiles – in accordance with the rules and nomenclature adopted in the international soil naming system – World Reference Base for Soil Resources (2022).

Ilustrated Handbook of WRB Soil Classification has been divided into  8 chapters. The photos presented in it have been arranged in such a way as to reflect the process of creating a description of the soil profile - from environmental features, through general, morphological soil features, horizons, properties and diagnostic materials, to specific examples of soil profile classification. In the section with soil profiles, 100 examples from all Reference Soil Groups found in all climatic zones of our planet are presented. In the name of the soils, we have mainly emphasized those features (qualifiers) that are morphologically visible in the photos, consciously omitting those that can only be read from the results of laboratory analyses.

The internet platform Share Your Soils (SYStem) was created as social edutainment medium dedicated to the description and categorisation of soils according to the international WRB classification. It is innovative teaching tool that helps teachers at high school and universities as well as environmental researchers and practitioners. The main tool developed within the project is a mobile and a web application to send photos of soil profiles with a description, a geolocation and a classification proposal. Users have the possibility to exchange and share their knowledge and help less experienced colleagues by commenting and suggesting soil genesis and classification. Join in, share your soils, discuss their origin and systematic position, collect points in different categories and have fun learning soil classification!

The significant spatial variability of soil cover results from the diverse impacts of different soil-forming factors. Soil Sequence Atlas No 5 presents pedovariability in the form of a collection of soil sequences typical of particular landscape types. The fifth part of the cycle contains description of 73 pedons (with soil profile photo, description of morphology and laboratory data) grouped into 15 chapters each representing a different environmental setting specific to very diverse regions from five continents – North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. The Atlas begins by presenting a pedo-landscapes from Americas – from Mexico to Peru. Next comes a group of chapters devoted to The Mediterranean Region – Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Tunisia. The next two chapters concern the soils of Central Europe – Hungary and Poland. At the end there are examples of steppe (Russian chernozems), semi-arid (Iran) and subtropical soils of Southeast Asia (Thailand). Out of 32 reference groups, as many as 17 are represented in the fifth part of atlas Soil Sequences Atlas. The most common soils are Calcisols (semi-arid areas) and the soils with clay illuviation (Luvisols) developed in very diverse environments.

The collected data is intended as a useful educational tool in teaching soil science, and in supporting an understanding of the reasons behind the variability of soil cover, and also as a WRB classification guideline. It is intended to be useful not only to students but also to practitioners in agriculture, forestry, environmental protection and landscape planning.