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EUROPA > European Commission > Joint Research Centre > Institute for Environment and Sustainability > Land Management & Natural Hazards Unit

Soil Themes > SPADE(Soil Profile Database) > SPADE-2 Objectives

Aims

As a result of the limitations of the SPADE-1 profile data for use in modelling at the European level, the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), supported by the European Soil Bureau of the European Commission Joint Research Centre have sponsored the collation of a second profile database (SPADE-2) for use with the SGDBE. The overall objective was to provide sufficient soil property data to support higher tier modelling of pesticide fate at the European level. The main aim of the SPADE-2 project is to expand the 'estimated' soil profile database to include 'primary soil properties' for all Soil Typological Units in the SGDBE v 3.2.8 and for both the designated dominant and secondary land uses (USE1 and USE2 ) for all the EU Member States as of November 2002.

Primary Soil Properties are:
clay%, silt%, fine sand%, medium sand%, coarse sand%, organic carbon%, pH, bulk density.

Derivation and Validation of Soil Property data

Derivation of the soil property data was achieved through the European Soil Bureau Network (Montanarella et al., 2005).

The designated Network data providers from Austria, Belgium & Luxembourg, Denmark, England Wales & Northern Ireland, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Sweden were contacted about participation. There was a negative response from Austria and no reply was ever received from Greece. Protocols for data generation and formal sub-contracts for provision of the data were then sent to the remaining National data providers. During subsequent negotiation, it was established that the specified data could not be supplied for France, Spain, Sweden and Ireland within a feasible project time-scale. All other countries: Belgium & Luxembourg, Denmark, England Wales & Northern Ireland, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Scotland, supplied complete data sets by March 2004.

Future

The long-term objective of the SPADE-2 project is to provide, for each country in the European Union, a land use-specific data set of soil primary properties relevant to each soil typological unit (STU) of each soil map unit (SMU) included in the 1:1,000,000 Soil Geographical Database for Europe.

It is further recommended that the database and methods used to derive it be extended to include soil property data from the New Member States of the Enlarged EU, the former EFTA nations (Norway & Switzerland), Candidate Countries (Bulgaria, Croatia & Romania), and the Neighbouring Countries of the Western Balkans.


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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)