Guidelines

The deduction, preparation and propagation of useful standards for geophysical measurements and mapping are very important tasks of iSOIL. In the iSOIL a key component is the development of guidelines for soil mapping at different scales and environments as well as the development of guidelines for the use of different methods for field measurements in the context of soil mapping. The aim of guidelines is to give outline answers on how to handle important constraints in soil mapping such as costs, geomorphology, land use, land ownership, existing regulations and the hierarchical scale approach.” Such guidelines will be published in a handbook. Guidelines will be produced with the help of European Committee for Standardization (CEN) in a CEN Workshops

  • CEN Workshop: Best Practice Approach for electromagnetic induction measurements of the near surface
  • Handbook: "Methods and Technologies for Mapping of Soil Properties, Function and Threat Risks" for publishing

Handbook: "Methods and Technologies for Mapping of Soil Properties, Function and Threat Risks" for publishing

Such guidelines will be published in a handbook: “Methods and Technologies for Mapping of Soil Properties, Function and Threat Risks”. This handbook will provide guidelines or best practices on how to use and choose different soil sensors within the mobile sensor platform depending on the aim at hand. We decided that this handbook should provide an overview mainly for stakeholders and should not be a scientific book. The Project DIGISOIL will be included in editing this handbook and details will be discussed at a special meeting in Brussels in January 2010.

CEN Workshop: Best Practice Approach for electromagnetic induction measurements of the near surface

The CEN Workshop offers a new mechanism and approach to standardization. There are non-bureaucratic rules to set up a workshop and the structure decided is set up by members in the workshop to reach maximum efficiency. This CEN Workshop is open to anyone willing to join and accepting the Business Plan with no geographical restrictions. The CEN workshop comprised a public process. The draft business plan is on web for comments for a defined period prior to the Workshop’s launch. In comparison to other standardization procedures the CEN Workshop is a fast process, because of reduced rules, the privileging of electronic working and results based on consensus during a meeting or by electronic means. The record is 5 months and normally it takes 12-15 months.

During the project we decided that the topic of the CEN Workshop should focus on one special problem related to the guidelines and therefore, we aim at a voluntary standardization of electromagnetic induction measurement to ensure that results can be evaluated and processed under uniform circumstances and can be comparable. A best practice approach could help to optimize the measuring procedure considering all related tasks such as geological situation, choice of measuring devices etc.

The considered points at the CEN Workshop are listed in Tab.1 and the schedule is illustrated in Fig.1

1. Definition of terms to be used consistently Some terms are used in a different content e.g. calibration. It is necessary to define terms that have to be used consistently.
2. Best practice field calibration method To avoid problems by e.g. different operators and different instruments there should be some guidelines for instrument calibration and to choose the best calibration points and calibration interval for the considered instruments.
3. Definition of reference standards for instrument evaluation Apart from the EM38 instrument of Geonics, all other instruments are factory calibrated. To estimate the effects caused by different calibration standards, a reference standard for instrument evaluation and their implementation should be discussed.
4. Best practice measurement at field site The best practice measurement should improve the repeatability and reproducibility of data and minimize the effect of uncertainty to some agreed value. It will consider e.g. definition of measuring procedures, selection of calibration point, time steps for recalibration and performance of reference measurements.
5. Quality assurance Quality assurance is an integral part of every field measurement. The purpose is to establish standardized field protocols to meet quality goals for all field activities and to ensure that all site specific data are documented.
6. Possibilities of data processing and evaluation Results of electromagnetic induction methods are processed by various techniques. A summary about possible data processing and evaluation methods will be compiled and advantages and restrictions will be listed.
7. Areas of application Electromagnetic induction methods are applied in several areas. An overview will show the areas of application in which best comparable results are obtained and gives some recommendations for monitoring the near surface.

Table:1: Proposed objectives of the CEN Workshop


CEN workshop

Fig. 1: Proposed Schedule of the CEN Workshop: Best Practice Approach for electromagnetic induction measurements of the near surface

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