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Date Title Information
07 May 2013 Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas How you can contribute?: Pick one of your pictures on soil and its biodiversity and send it to us. Get more information about this Photo Contest (EN, FR, IT) . The best selected pictures will be published in the forthcoming atlas.
29 April 2013 Soil Atlas of Africa The Highlight of the Year: The Soil Atlas of Africa, the first of its kind, uses striking maps, informative texts and stunning photographs to present the diversity of soil across the African continent. It explains what soil is, where it comes from, the unique characteristics of soils in Africa, the services soil provides to society and the environment, and how soil resources are affected by human activities. With its stunning full-colour maps and illustrations, it explains why it is so important to preserve this precious natural resource. The Atlas was produced by the JRC in collaboration with the African Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the African Soil Science Society and soil scientists from Africa and Europe.
The aim of the atlas is to raise awareness at all levels, from politicians to the general public, of the significance of soil to life in Africa. With its stunning full-colour maps and illustrations, the atlas explains the diversity of soil across the African continent and explains why it is so important to preserve this precious resource. It analyses the major threats to soil and presents the steps needed to protect soil resources.
You can download the PDF version of the Atlas. Physical copies of the book will be available through the EU Publications Office towards the end of May 2013.
29 April 2013 Vacancy: Trainee for the Support to the Danube Land and Soil Nexus (DLSN) Open vacancy: The ideal candidate should have a master degree in geography, geosciences or environmental science. Previous experience with spatial data management and GIS is an dvantage. Relevant publications and presentations should be highlighted.
13 Trainee posts: http://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?type=TR
More vacancies: http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/vacancies/
29 April 2013 Soil Spectroscopy: the present and the future of soil monitoring Interesting Workshop: The Global Soil Partnership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) have the pleasure of organising this workshop in order to contribute to soil monitoring activities as a response to environmental challenges.
Workshop Venue: 4 - 6 December 2013 at the FAO Headquarters, located in Rome, Italy.
The main aim of the workshop is to raise awareness among scientists, policy makers, farmers associations and soil practitioners about the possibilities that spectroscopy offers for checking soil status while reducing the need for traditional chemical analyses.
29 April 2013 Study supporting potential land and soil targets under the 2014 land communication Call for proposals: The Directorate-General for Environment invites applications for its study supporting potential land and soil targets under the 2014 land communication. The main objective of this study is to assist the Commission services in setting up a suitable framework for measuring and tracking the status and progress on land-related aspects. Targets include land take, land recycling, EU land demand in third countries, land multi-functionality and similar concepts, as well as soil erosion and soil organic matter. Legal persons based in EU states or authorised countries under the WTO procurement agreement may submit bids
More Information on the DG ENV site: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/funding/calls_en.htm
Deadline: 10/06/2013
26 April 2013 Economics of soils in (peri-)urban context Call for proposals: The European Environment Agency (EEA) envisages awarding a contract to a service provider for support on a project on the role of soils in contributing to, or adversely affecting, the functioning of (peri-)urban areas (delineated as urban morphological zones [UMZs]) in the EEA-39 (32 member countries and 7 cooperating countries), with particular focus on the economic ramifications thereof.
More Information on the EEA site: http://www.eea.europa.eu/about-us/tenders/negotiated-procedures
Deadline: 08/05/2013
23 April 2013 Mapping Soil Typologies - Spatial Decision Support Applied to European Soil Database Interesting Publication: For many applications of modelling environmental conditions or processes soil characteristics are needed in form of spatial data ready to be integrated in a GIS. A source of uniform data on characteristics of European soils is available from the European Soil Database (ESDB) of the European Soil Bureau. The soil information was collected by participating national institutions and underwent an extensive process of harmonizing the thematic content of recording the soil characteristics and ensuring spatial continuity along boundaries. In the database a many-to-1 link is used to relate soil characteristics to the geographic layer. Thus, considerably effort is required to represent specific soil characteristics in a single spatial layer.

17 April 2013 Survey on threats to soil biodiversity Your feedback is needed: This survey is being conducted to allow us to assess the potential threats to soil biodiversity at global scale. The relative risk, correlated to both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic pressures, for soil biota is indeed poorly known. Understanding how which factors impact soil life will be useful to measure and prevent possible future losses of biodiversity. The aim of this questionnaire is to provide a scored index for the main recognized threats to soil biodiversity. In order to reach this goal, we need the contribution from experts on soil biodiversity issues. The questionnaire consists of 3 questions and should take only 5 minutes to complete.

15 April 2013 First GlobalSoilMap Conference Important Event: The first GlobalSoilMap Conference will be held in Orleans, France, from 7 to 9 October 2013. The deadline for a one page abstract submission is 30 May 2013 – The selection of the papers (acceptance, choice between oral and poster) will be based on the abstracts and you'll be informed in June. A template for a full 6 pages paper to be edited in a book will be soon available on the website, and the deadline for full papers submission will be 31 July 2013.

10 April 2013 Global Soil Biodiversity Assessment and Atlas Global development: The GSBA will coordinate an international network of scientists and policy makers in an effort to synthesize present knowledge of crucial taxonomic groups in soil, identify how soil biodiversity and its services can be measured across the wide range of ecosystems in the world, address vulnerabilities of soil biota and ecosystem services and recommend future management applications based on scientific knowledge.
In the frame of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, the SOIL Action (22004) of the Joint Research Centre's Institute for Environment and Sustainability is glad to announce that the writing of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (GSBA) has been scheduled. The development of the GSBA will be coordinated by the SOIL Action itself. The list of Authors of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas is also presented. A first tentative to develop the Atlas cover is also presented.
10 April 2013 Processing Indices of Change and Extremes from Regional Climate Change Data Interesting publication (Documentation for the Climate Change data): Indicators of climate change and extremes from regional models coming from the PRUDENCE project of the Danish Meteorological Institute, the consortial simulation of the Climate Limited-area Modelling Community and 12 runs of bias-corrected data from the ENSEMBLES project were processed. The resulting indicators were standardized to a common map projection, grid size and spatial extent to be directly available for further analysis or integration with other spatial data. The indicators were used in the data available from the European Climate Adaptation Platform (CLIMATE-ADAPT), the European Database of Vulnerabilities to Natural Hazards (EVDAB), the JRC activities within the FP7 RESPONSES project and support the evaluation of changes in soil organic carbon under climate scenarios.

8 April 2013 PostDoc Vacancy in Soil Action Vacancies: Development of a harmonized Northern-Eurasian soil information base for soil quality assessment: The ideal candidate should have a PhD in soil science, biology or related field with very good knowledge in spatial soil datasets or a minimum of 5 years research experience in soil science after the first degree giving access to doctoral studies.
Deadline: 02/5/2013
More Posts of Grant Holders in Joint Research Centre expiring in different deadlines: http://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?inst=3511&site=IPR&type=GH

4 April 2013 Climate Change Regional Indicators of Change and Extremes Interesting Dataset: Indicators of climate change and extremes from regional models coming from 3 sources: PRUDENCE project of the Danish Meteorological Institute, consortial simulation of the Climate Limited-area Modelling (CLM) Community, 12 runs of bias-corrected data from the ENSEMBLES project. Datasets refer to Temperature, Precipitation, Precipitation intensity, Relative Humidity, Aridity Index, HUMIDEX, Heat wave plus statistical indicators such as Min, Max, Percentiles and Standard deviation. The datasets are available after a prior registration.
15 March 2013 UNCCD special sessions organised by JRC Important Event The European Commission organises Special Sessions on (1) The New World Atlas of Desertification (WAD) contributing to economic valuation of land degradation, and (2) a CASCADE Special Session on how to overcome the difficulties of successful engagement of non-scientific stakeholders. Participants in UNCCD conference are invited to follow this special sessions, WAD 10/4/2013 8:30-9:45 and CASCADE 11/4/2013 8:30-10:00. Bonn, Germany. WAD is a JRC initiative jointly with UNEP and a vast network of experts. SOIL Action staff, S. Sommer is part of the Conference Steering Committee.
More information on UNCCD Programme: https://www.conftool.pro/2sc-unccd/sessions.php

6 March 2013 EIONET 2012 final report EIONET Meeting Minutes including the various discussions, conclusions and planned actions are now available.

22 February 2013 Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012 Interesting publication: This European Environment Agency (EEA) report presents information on past and projected climate change and related impacts in Europe, based on a range of indicators. The report also assesses the vulnerability of society, human health and ecosystems in Europe and identifies those regions in Europe most at risk from climate change. Furthermore, the report discusses the principle sources of uncertainty for the indicators and notes how monitoring and scenario development can improve our understanding of climate change, its impacts and related vulnerabilities.
The Soil Chapter has been drafted by the JRC SOIL Team (pages 146-157)

22 February 2013 LIFE+ 2013 Call for Proposals: The seventh LIFE+ call for proposals was published on 19 February 2013, with up to €278 million available for co-financing of projects under three headings: Nature and Biodiversity (NAT), Environment Policy and Governance (ENV) and Information and Communication (INF).
Deadline: 25/06/2013

22 February 2013 International Conference Biochars, Composts, and Digestates Event Announcement: The International Conference BCD2013 "Biochars, Composts and Digestates. Production, Characterization, Regulation, Marketing, Uses and Environmental Impact" will be held in Bari, Italy, from 17 to 20 October 2013, presided by Prof. Nicola Senesi of the University of Bari. The Conference will focus on and develop the various scientific and applied aspects of biochar, compost and digestate science and technology, including field approaches and implications in a sustainable environment. The Conference will be scheduled in four general sessions and a number of special sessions. The 1st Circular is now available in the Conference website (www.bcd2013.eu), where detailed information can be found, including the General Provisional Programme, the Call for Proposals to convene Special Sessions, the Call for Abstracts, the Registration fees, all deadlines, and much more. Any interested person is cordially invited to visit the BCD2013 website, and encouraged to submit Abstract(s) (deadline 31 March 2013) through the appropriate form available in the Conference website. For more details visit www.bcd2013.eu.

22 February 2013 Soil Biodiversity New content: The European Soil Portal has updated the Soil Biodiversity pages with new "Fresh" information. The updated page includes information on Definition of soil biodiversity, Methods for studying , Role of soil biodiversity, Brief history Value and importance of studying soil biodiversity. The on-line publications sections has been updated with new published articles in peer review journals.
15 February 2013 European Landslide Susceptibility Map (Version 1 available for download) New dataset: This newly available raster map, called ELSUS1000, shows levels of spatial probability of landslide occurrence in EU member states and neighbouring countries at 1 km resolution. The map has been derived through spatial multicriteria evaluation based modelling using pan-European datasets on slope angle, lithology, and land cover, along with over 100,000 landslide locations. It has been produced jointly by BGR, JRC, CNRS-EOST and CNR-IRPI, and is freely available from the European Soil Portal together with a number of ancillary spatial datasets.

14 February 2013 2 PostDoc Vacancies in Soil Action Vacancies: Modeling Wind Erosion at European scale: The ideal candidate should have should have a Ph.D. in soil erosion preferably in wind erosion modeling or a minimum of 5 years research experience in wind erosion modeling after the first degree giving access to doctoral studies
Digital soil mapping and land use modeling: The ideal candidate should have a Ph.D. in soil science preferably in digital soil mapping and land use modelling or a minimum of 5 years of research experience (digital soil mapping and land use modelling) after the first degree giving access to doctoral studies
Deadline: 10/3/2013
27 Posts of Grant Holders in different deadlines: http://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?inst=3511&site=IPR&type=GH

14 February 2013 Call for Expression of Interest for CONTRACT AGENTS RESEARCHERS – FUNCTION GROUP IV Contract Agents Competition: At the request of the European Commission (EC) and in particular the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is launching a selection procedure to set up a database of successful candidates from which to recruit research contract staff (Contract Agents FGIV) with the aforementioned profiles for the provision of additional capacity. If you have a sound track record of research in Natural Sciences; Quantitative Sciences; Human and Social Sciences; Agricultural, Environmental and Earth Sciences; Health Sciences, you can make all the difference within the JRC's stimulating multicultural environment.
Deadline: 1/3/2013

14 February 2013 INSPIRE soil data specifications Policy development: After 2.5 years of work, the INSPIRE Thematic Working Group on SOIL is in a position to release the INSPIRE soil data specifications ('Technical Guidelines'). It is a document that has been the basis for some new European legislation (INSPIRE Implementing Rules) that describes the structure in which national authorities that hold soil data must make their data available to the public. The final proposed legislative act still needs to be voted by the so-called INSPIRE Committee (on 4 April 2013) and then approved by European Council/Parliament. So during summer 2013, it is expected that the new regulation will entry into force. This will have of course consequences for the holders of soil data in Europe. The regulation is quite dry text and fairly difficult to understand for people not familiar with INSPIRE matters. The Technical Guidelines makes the legislative text more approachable.

14 February 2013 Meeting FP7 project Coordinators in Urban Issues, Soil Biodiversity, Desertification and Land Degradation Meeting output: On 22-23 October 2012 DG RTD organised a meeting of European Commission services with the FP7 project Coordinatos in Urban Issues, Soil Biodiversity, Desertification and Land Degradation. Those projects have been funded by the Environment Programme of DG RTD, Unit "Management of Natural Resources".
The Projects presentations during this meeting are now available.

During the 2-days meeting 21 Projects have been presented in 4 different sessions:
Urban soil (4): TIMBRE, CityChlor, HOMBRE, LUPIS
Soil Biodiversity (3): SOILTREC, EcoFINDERs, SOILSERVICE
Urban Risks and urban development(5): SUME , BRIDGE, CLUVA, SECOA, URBAN-NEXUS
Desertification and Land Resources Management (9): SMARTSOIL, CASCADE, DESIRE, PRACTICE, UNDESERT , CATCH-C, VOLANTE, DESURVEY, LEDDRA


8 February 2013 Landslide inventories in Europe and policy recommendations for their interoperability and harmonisation - A JRC contribution to the EU-FP7 SafeLand project Research Report: This report provides a detailed review of existing national landslide inventories as well as of a number of regional inventories in EU member states and neighbouring countries. For national landslide databases, it also analyses their ability to provide landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk assessments at national scale. In addition, the report proposes improvements in landslide databases for delineating areas at risk of landslides in agreement with the EU Soil Thematic Strategy and its associated Proposal for a Soil Framework Directive, and for achieving interoperability and harmonisation in agreement with the INSPIRE Directive.


23 January 2013 EIONET Meeting (December 2012) Meeting output: This workshop was held at JRC Ispra from 10 to 12 December 2012, organized by the Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IES) of the JRC. Representatives from EIONET member countries have been invited to the meeting together with representatives from the European Environment Agency (EEA) and DG Environment to discuss the soil information and data flow between the interested parties during the period 2009-2012. The workshop dealt with the following issues: it reflected on the last two data collection exercises held in 2010 (soil organic carbon/soil erosion) and 2011 (contaminated sites); it discussed how possible new soil data requirements specified by DG ENV and EEA (as main customers) could be matched with contributions from EIONET National Reference Centres for Soil and an outline of the road ahead was agreed for the short term. The presentations of the EIONET Workshop Soil 2012 (held here in JRC Ispra last December) are now available.


15 January 2013 Wind Erosion dataset Dataset available for download: Wind erosion is the transport of soil particles by wind and forms part of the degradation process on arable land by segregating the soil particles.
Number of Erosive days: The dataset provides an overview of the geographic spread of areas prone to wind erosion. This dataset shows the 30 year average soil erosivity according to climatic conditions (e.g. wind velocity) and the erodibility of the soil (e.g. texture). A layer of aggregated data of mean values calculated for the 'Wind erosion - number of erosive days' at NUTS3 level is also available.
Agriculture Field Parameters on NUTS-3 regions for Wind erosion research: The dataset contains averaged Field Size, Field Orientation, Field Length, Average Number of Images, Percentage of Large Fields and Length to Width Ratios for the EU 27 Memberstates and Switzerland, aggregated to NUTS region. The analysis is based on approximately 400 satellite images from the IMAGE2000 archive.


14 January 2013 Trainee Vacancy in SOIL Action, IES, JRC, Ispra, Italy Vacancy: Trainee in "Inventory of Contaminated Sites in Europe" (only for Turkish citizens). The ideal candidate should have a master degree in chemistry, physics, engineering or environmental science. Previous experience with contaminated sites management is an advantage .
Duration: 12 - 24 Months
Deadline: 18/2/2013


11 January 2013 Work Programme 2013 Policy Implementation: The Work Programme 2013 for SOIL Action is Available. Deliverables and Objectives of the Action are included.

11 January 2013 Summer of Soil Awareness Raising Events: Summer of Soil is a 5-week, multi-disciplinary accelerator program designed to awaken and inspire a collaborative movement to rebuild and maintain living soils.
The program will include a series of hands-on soil-related Courses, an exhibition of regenerative growing practices and the 5-day Living Soil Forum for bringing conversation to action.
99% of our food comes from our soil. 25% of this soil as already been degraded to the level where it can no longer support food production. We are losing 10 million hectares of fertils soil each year. That is 30 soccer fields per minute. Agriculture is responsible for 75% of soil degradation.
The FAO, European Union and others recognize the importance of soil and warn for the negative influence of unsustainable agriculture and soil management on the health of our soils and food security.

Venue: 7 JUL - 9 AUG 2013, Järna, Sweden


3 January 2013 Soil of year 2013 Awareness Raising: The Plaggic Anthrosol (Plaggenesch) has been selected as Germany's "Soil of the Year 2013". The German name Plaggenesch combines the terms "Plaggen" and "Esch". "Plaggen", or sods, are flat blocks of soil material with its above herbal or shrub or grassy vegetation and felted roots, shallowly scraped with a hoe or a spade.

3 January 2013 Open vacancies in JRC and other Institutions A number of open vacancies in environmental (and soil-related) fields.
Posts are available in International Organisations such as European Commission, Joint Research Centre, ISRIC, and other organisations/universities, etc.

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European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Institute for Environment and Sustainability
Contacts:
Marc Van Liedekerke(tel. +39-0332-785179)
Panos Panagos (tel. +39-0332-785574)