Environmental Assessment of Soil for Monitoring Volume I: Indicators & Criteria

The ENVASSO Project (Contract 022713) was funded 2006-8, under the European Commission 6th Framework Programme of Research, with the objective of defining and documenting a soil monitoring system appropriate for soil protection at continental level. The ENVASSO Consortium, comprising 37 partners drawn from 25 EU Member States, reviewed soil indicators, identified existing soil inventories and monitoring programmes in the Member States, designed and programmed a database management system to capture, store and supply soil profile data, and drafted procedures and protocols appropriate for inclusion in a European soil monitoring network of sites that are geo-referenced and at which a qualified sampling process is or could be conducted. Volume I, one of six describing the results of the ENVASSO Project, identifies 290 potential indicators relating to 188 key issues for the following nine threats to soil: erosion, organic matter decline, contamination, sealing, compaction, loss of biodiversity, salinisation, landslides and desertification. Sixty candidate indicators that address 27 key issues, covering all these threats, were selected on the basis of their thematic relevance, policy relevance and data availability. Baseline and threshold values are presented and detailed Fact Sheets describe three priority indicators for each soil threat.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Symposium no. 32 Paper no. 607 Presentation: oral Development of indicators for soil quality at the

Indicators have the objective of evaluating the degree to which targets are met. Indicators have to be policy-relevant, topical, reliable and easy to understand so that they can be communicated to decision-makers and stakeholders. The development and the selection of suitable indicators related to soil are often difficult due to the spatial variability and different properties of soils. Soils are buffer systems which cover up ongoing processes affecting the soil environment for a long time. Therefore it is often not enough to describe soil attributes (e.g. heavy metal content) and to use them as indicators. In addition to that, the pressures and also the impacts on other media and environments have to be considered and assessed with appropriate indicators. Only an integrated approach combining several relevant indicators can give answers to the complex questions of soil quality and sustainable land use

Environmental assessment of soil for monitoring desertification in Europe

International audienc

Soil atlas of Europe

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