Soil at Joint Research Centre

Soil at JRC

As a service of the European Commission, the JRC provides scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. This includes EU soil policy.

Soil activities within the JRC are concentrated in a specific JRC Action, called FP7 "Soil Data and Information Systems" or SOIL for short. This action, which belongs to the Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability will run for the whole period 2007-2014 of the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) and has a number objectives:

The establishment of the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) as a single focal point for all soil data and information in Europe.
The development of procedures and methods for data collection, quality assessment and control, data management and storage, data distribution to Commission and external users, fully complying with INSPIRE principles for spatial data infrastructures.
Research and development of advanced modeling techniques, indicators and scenario analyses in relation to the major threats to soil (erosion, decline of organic matter, compaction, salinisation, landslides, sealing, contamination, and loss of soil biodiversity), as identified in the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.
Supporting the other Commission's services with soil information and scientific as well as technical assistance in negotiating the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection and the proposal for a Soil Framework Directive through the EU Institutions and their subsequent implementation at Community and Member State level.
Extension of the coverage of the European Soil Information System (EUSIS) towards a fully operational Global Soil Information System (GLOSIS), providing relevant soil information for the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements, like UNFCCC, CBD and UNCCD, and contributing to the ground segment of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES).

SOER2010: The European environment – state and outlook 2010 (SOER) report was launched on the 30th November in Brussels. The 222-page report provides an overview of the state of, trends in and prospects for the environment in Europe. It includes 13 Europe-wide thematic assessments of key environmental themes which aim to help policy makers and citizens better understand, care for and improve Europe’s environment. The thematic assessment on Soil was written by IES scientists in collaboration with the EEA and DG ENV. Download the Thematic Assessement Soil.

Each year, a detailed workprogramme with specific objectives and deliverables is elaborated in collaboration with other Commission services:

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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)

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