Scientific-Technical Reports

Bio Bio Project Biodiversity - Bioindication to evaluate Soil Health. EUR 22245 EN, 134pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. R.M Cenci and F. Sena Download report: (Size: 7.7 MB) Preview FrontPage :

For the first time, a comprehensive picture, at community scale, of the aquifers and their characteristics is available in digital form. For several Member States of the European Communities (Belgium, Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and United Kingdom) this pioneer study provides a complete catalogue of national water resources.

Il Suolo della Provincia di Pavia The soils in Pavia Province (Italy) EUR 22132 IT, 128pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. R.M Cenci, G. Lodigiani, L. Musmeci, N. Filippi, F. Bouraoui, Gunther Umlauf and F. Sena Download report: (Size: 52 MB) Preview FrontPage :

Environmental impact study of the project for the enlargement of the Landfill of Poiatica (Reggio Emilia, ITALY) This study was developed to obtain the approval by the Province of Reggio Emilia for the enlargement of the landfill of Poiatica (Reggio Emilia). It was prepared on the basis of the Guidelines produced by the Emilia - Romagna Region to assess the impact of a landfill on the environment. The study includes five chapters: programme framework, project framework, synergistic anthropic factors independent from the project, baseline conditions of the environment, environmental impact of the project and alternatives. Cenci, R. et Al.(2002) Studio di impatto ambientale relativoal progetto generale definitivo per l' approvazione dell' ampliamento della discarica di I Categoria di R.S.U. et R.S.A. DI Poiatica di Carpineti per 1.000.000 mc Dda realizzarsi in lotti successivi in relazione alle indicazioni della pianificazione. EUR 20426 IT. European Communities, Ispra (2002). 812 pp. Download report: (Size: 150 MB) Preview FrontPage :

Will there be enough plant nutrients to feed a world of 9 billion in 2050? Will there be enough plant nutrients to feed a world of 9 billion in 2050? is the central question addressed by a JRC study. This exercise was based on consultations with experts and a thematic workshop focused on three areas of interest: 1) the demand for fertilizers to sustain crop production necessary to feed the world in 2050; 2) perspectives on the supply of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) to world agriculture and 3) the role of innovation and technology in changing the match between demand and supply of fertilizers. Implications of the main findings for current EU and international policies were addressed. "There is no specific reason to be alarmed about the overall supply of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus for the world's agriculture but because of changing conditions in production, demand and use, continuous vigilance is called for." Author(s):Jean-Paul Malingreau, Hugh Eva, Albino Maggio. 2012 – 30pp. – EUR 25327 EN – Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2012 – 30 pp. – 21.0 x 29.7 cm, EUR – Scientific and Technical Research series – ISSN 1831-9424 (online) ISSN 1018-5593 (print), ISBN 978-92-79-24910-5 (pdf),ISBN 978-92-79-24909-9 (print), doi: 10.2788/26603 Download report: (Size: 1.5 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 26/09/2012

Bob Ahrens, Luca Montanarella, Otto Spaargaren, Erika Michéli Classification, an applied area of soil science but lacks a common set of terminology. In this paper, harmonization of the basic terminology of modern classification systems is suggested.

Extending Geographic and Thematic Range of SPADE/M with HYPRES Soil Profile Data The measured soil profile data of the Hydraulic Properties of European Soils (HYPRES) were evaluated for their potential use in extending the geographic coverage and thematic range of the profiles of the Soil Profile Analytical Database of Europe of measured profiles (SPADE/M) database. The aim of increasing the number of measured profiles is to improve the definition of pedo-transfer rules (PTRs) to extend the range of parameters characterizing soils and the validation of model runs.The HYPRES and SPADE/M databases follow different concepts in the compilation of soil profiles. These differences were reflected in the organization of storing profile data in the databases. A specific conceptual problem to extending the SPADE/M data set is posed by recording repeated measurements in the HYPRES database for horizons of a profile and multiple profiles for a plot. The two data sets also differ with respect to the properties recorded, the measurement units and the database model. To increase the number of measured soil profile data of the SPADE/M data set with HYPRES profiles the data from the latter has to be standardized to be adjusted to comply with the specifications of the SPADE/M data set. The standardization process involves conversions of units or reference systems, such as the plot co-ordinate transformation or the extraction of properties from comment fields, but also conceptual adaptations of the method used to characterize a soil horizon in the database. The outcome of the standardization process is a series of soil profiles which can be seamlessly added to the SPADE/M data set. Author(s): R. Hiederer Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2011 – 43 pp. – EUR 26540 EN Scientific and Technical Research series – ISBN 78-92-79-21593-3(online), doi:10.2788/8209 Download report: (Size: 1 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 21/08/2014

ENVASSO: ENVironmental ASsessment of Soil for mOnitoring. The project's main objective was to define and document a soil monitoring system for implementation in support of a Soil Framework Directive, aimed at protecting soil in the EU. The final reports from the ENVASSO project can be downloaded through the following links: Volume I identifies 290 potential indicators relating to 188 key issues for nine threats to soil identified in the Commission's Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. Volume IIa identifies the existing soil inventory and monitoring systems in the EU Member States and evaluates the extent to which existing soil monitoring networks adequately represent European soil typological units, land use/cover, specific soil criteria - such as soil organic carbon, bulk density, heavy metal contents - and existing spatial assessments of threats to soil such as soil erosion, compaction and desertification. Volume IIb is a Survey of National Soil Monitoring Networks, containing comprehensive fact sheets listing for each national network, its purpose, the sampling strategy adopted, the analytical methods used and the number of monitoring sites. Volume III reviews user-needs for soil information and briefly describes existing soil information systems in a selection of Member States. Volume IVa summarises the results of testing 22 indicator procedures in 28 Pilot Areas in the Member Sates. (Oct 2009) Volume IVb contains 28 Pilot Area study reports that adhere to a standard reporting template to aid comparison and evaluation. They represent a wide range of soil-landscapes from the north to the south of Europe........ Volume V describes the procedures and protocols needed for harmonised soil monitoring in Europe which have been modified following the extensive testing of 22 indicators in 28 Pilot Areas of EU Member States reported in Volume IV. Volume VI summarises the results presented in the preceding volumes (I-V) and concludes with a proposed approach to monitoring soil conditions in Europe. Last Update: 30/10/2009

Evaluation of BioSoil Demonstration Project - Preliminary Data Analysis. The BioSoil demonstration Project was initiated under the Forest Focus-Scheme (Regulation (EC) Nr. 2152/2003) concerning the monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community, and aimed to broaden the scope of previous forest monitoring activities (on atmospheric pollution and forest fires) to the fields of soil characteristics and biodiversity indicators. The preliminary data analysis concentrated on the evaluation of a selected number of parameters of the data submitted by NFCs and sampling procedures. For soil the parameters needed to establish soil organic carbon densities were analysed. Hiederer, R.and T. Durrant (2010) Evaluation of BioSoil Demonstration Project - Preliminary Data Analysis. EUR 24258 EN. Luxembourg: Office for Official. Publications of the European Communities. 126pp. Keywords: BioSoil, Forest Focus, Soil, Organic Carbon, biodiversity indicators Download report: (Size: 4.8 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 24/02/2010

JONES, A.R., HOUŠKOVÁ, B., FILIPPI N., MICHÉLI, E., SELVARADJOU, S.K., MONTANARELLA, L. and JONES, R.J.A. (2004). EUR 21210 EN, 285pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Presentations of the 2nd European Summer School on Soil Survey [European Soil Bureau, Institute of Environement and Sustainability (July 2004)]

Elementi chimici nei funghi superiori (Chemical elements in fungi) Funghi di riferimento come strumento di lavoro per la bioindicazione e la biodiversita (Fungi as study means for biodiversity and bio-indication I funghi in natura sono tra i principali agenti dei cicli biogeochimici, i cicli di materia ed energia alla base del funzionamento degli ecosistemi Il presente volume comprende: Indicazione delle localita di campionamento dei funghi e dei suoli, I dati analitici (ca 300.000) riguardanti la totalità dei campioni (ca 10.000) di funghi e di suoli analizzati, La statistica descrittiva per tutti i generi e le specie analizzati, Le mappe che illustrano la distribuzione delle concentrazioni degli elementi inorganici nei funghi. Author(s): R. M. Cenci, L. Cocchi, O. Petrini, F. Sena, C. Siniscalco, L. Vescovi, 22010 – 232 pp– EUR 24415 IT– EUR – Scientific and Technical Research series – ISSN 1018-5593 - ISBN 978-92-79-16023-3 Download report: (Size: 29.5 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 22/07/2010

Landslide Mapping in Austria. This study presents and discusses landslide inventories, susceptibility and hazard maps and databases available in Austria. Schweigl, J., Hervás, J., 2009. Landslide Mapping in Austria. JRC Scientific and Technical Report EUR 23785 EN, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 61 pp. ISBN 978-92-79-11776-3. Download report: (Size: 26 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 07/04/2009

Provincia di Varese C.C.R di Ispra: Flussi di ricaduta di metalli pesanti valutati mediante muschi e suoli Varese Province and JRC Ispra: Depositions of heavy metals by means of mosses and soil EUR 22137 IT, 84pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg (2006). R.M Cenci, F. Leva M., Bianchi. Download report: (Size: 4.6 MB) Preview FrontPage :

European Soil Portal The Official Guide for the European Soil Portal. References to Data, Documents, Applications, Projects, Themes and Utilities. Also, the features of the Soil portal are presented against the INSPIRE principles. EUR 22186 EN, 69pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Panos Panagos, Marc Van Liedekerke and Luca Montanarella Download report: (Size: 11.2 MB) Preview FrontPage :

JONES, R.J.A., HIEDERER, R., RUSCO, E., LOVELAND, P.J. and MONTANARELLA, L. (2003). Proceedings of the 4th European Congress on Regional Geoscientific Cartography and Information Systems, 17-20 June 2003, Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Direzione Generale Ambiente e Difesa del Suolo e della Costa, Servizio Geologoco, Sismico e dei Suoli, p.249-251.

Addressing soil degradation in EU agriculture: relevant processes, practices and policies. Agriculture occupies a substantial proportion of the European land, and consequently plays an important role in maintaining natural resources and cultural landscapes, a precondition for other human activities in rural areas. Unsustainable farming practices and land use, including mismanaged intensification as well as land abandonment, have an adverse impact on natural resources. Having recognised the environmental challenges of agricultural land use, the European Parliament requested the European Commission in 2007 to carry out a pilot project on 'Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation through simplified cultivation techniques' (SoCo). The project originated from a close cooperation between the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). It was implemented by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) and the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES). Report on the project 'Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo)'.Authors: SoCo Project Team, Editors: Geertrui Louwagie, Stephan Hubertus Gay, Alison Burrell. EUR 23767 EN, ISSN 1018-5593, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2009. Download report: (Size: 4 MB) , Download the Annex (14 MB) Preview FrontPage :

Threats to Soil Quality in Europe The special session during EUROSOIL 2008 dedicated to the threats to soil quality in Europe has allowed for an indepth analysis of the status of research in this are and the identification of still existing research gaps for future action. The full coverage of the threats identified within the Soil Thematic Strategy will allow to further support the on-going process towards better soil protection in Europe. Gergely Tóth, Luca Montanarella and Ezio Rusco (eds.) EUR 23438 EN, ISBN 978-92-79-09529-0, ISSN 1018-5593, DOI 10.2788/8647 . Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities , 2008. Download report: (Size: 8MB) Preview FrontPage :

A Soil Sampling Protocol to Certify the Changes of Organic Carbon Stock in Mineral Soils of European Union. EUR 21576 EN, 12 pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Stolbovoy Vladimir, Luca Montanarella, Nicola Filippi, Senthil-Kumar Selvaradjou, Panos Panagos and Javier Gallego.

Background values in European soils and sewage sludges Results of a JRC- coordinated study on background values B. M. Gawlik and G. Bidoglio(2006) EUR 22265 EN , European Commission, Ispra, Italy, ISBN 92-79-02120-6 , ISSN 1018-5593 Part I - Evaluation of the relevance of organic micro-pollutants in sewage sludge (R. Leschber). Download Part I: (Size: 0.5 MB) Part II - Contents of trace elements and organic matter in European soils (J. Utermann, O. Düwel, I. Nagel). Download Part II: (Size: 7.5 MB) Part III - Conclusions, comments and recommendations (B. M. Gawlik , G. Bidoglio) Download Part III: (Size: 0.4 MB)

3rd European Summer School on Soil Survey MICHÉLI, E., PANAGOS, P., JONES, A. and MONTANARELLA (2006), EUR 22193EN, 219pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Presentationsand Videos of the 3rd European Summer School on Soil Survey [Szent István University and European Soil Bureau, Institute of Envrionement and Sustainability and (July 2005)] Download report: (Size: 19 MB) Preview FrontPage : Available also the CD 3rd European Summer School on Soil Survey

Development of a Spatial European Soil Property Data Set For many applications of modelling environmental conditions or developing scenarios for environmental change analysis soil property data in form of spatial layers are needed. Raster data formats are widely used for the modelling of movements through space and the storage of parameters, which change constantly and without a pattern that could be described by a plain mathematical function. This study into providing spatial soil property layers uses a soil database where the soil properties are stored in tables of generalized combinations of attributes and linked to a spatial layer of delineated mapping units. Roland Hiederer & Robert J.A. Jones, 2009. Development of a Spatial European Soil Property Data Set. JRC Scientific and Technical Report EUR 23839 EN, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 30 pp.ISBN 978-92-79-12535-5, ISSN 1018-5593 , DOI 10.2788/19220. Download report: (Size: 1 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 19/06/2009

Mapping Soil Typologies - Spatial Decision Support Applied to European Soil Database 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. Author(s) Hiederer, R. – Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union – 2013 – 147pp. – EUR25932EN Scientific and Technical Research series, ISSN 1831-9424, doi:10.2788/87286 Download report: (Size: 5 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 23/04/2013

Biofuels: a New Methodology to Estimate GHG Emissions from Global Land Use Change - A methodology involving spatial allocation of agricultural land demand and estimation of CO2 and N2O emissions This study provides a new methodology developed by the JRC IES and IE for estimating changes in soil carbon stocks and GHG emissions resulting from global land use changes caused by the production of biofuels. The methodology follows a two-step approach: a) Creation of database (e.g. land use/crop cover/soil types etc.), combining different data sources into a single harmonised database; b) Simulation based on cropland demands from the general equilibrium model MIRAGE (run by IFPRI) and on cropland demand from the partial equilibrium model AGLINK-COSIMO Author(s): Roland Hiederer, Fabien Ramos, Claudia Capitani, Renate Koeble, Viorel Blujdea, Oscar Gomez, Declan Mulligan and Luisa Marelli, 2010 – 150 pp. – EUR 24483 EN– Scientific and Technical Research series – ISSN 1018-5593, ISBN 978-92-79-16389-0, DOI 10.2788/48910 Download report: (Size: 2 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 12/11/2010

Final report on the project ‘Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo)’ This report synthesises the findings of the SoCo project and translates them into conclusions and recommendations. Following the introduction (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 reviews soil degradation processes, soil conservation practices and policy measures at European level. Soil degradation risk was assessed through parametric and empirical models, whereas the review of soil conservation farming practices is based on the available literature. The literature review of policy measures is supplemented by a survey of policy implementation at national or regional level. Chapter 3 takes the analysis to the local scale by means of ten case studies distributed over three macro-regions. Aggregated environmental benefits of adopting particular soil conservation practices are explored with model calculations in Chapter 4. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the effectiveness and efficiency of instruments for soil protection, maintenance and improvement in Europe, exploring opportunities and critical issues linked to the adoption of conservation practices. The report closes with policy-relevant conclusions as a basis for policy recommendations. Authors: SoCo Project Team, Editors: Geertrui Louwagie, Stephan Hubertus Gay, Alison Burrell.Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. EUR 23820 EN, ISBN 978-92-79-12400-6, ISSN 1018-5593, DOI 10.2791/10052 Download report: (Size: 8 MB) Preview FrontPage : Last Update: 24/09/2009

European Digital Archive of Soil Maps (EuDASM) - Metadata of the Soil Maps of Latin America and Caribbean islands European Digital Archive of Soil Maps (EuDASM) - Metadata of the Soil Maps of Latin America and Caribbean islands. EUR 21821 EN 219pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Selvaradjou, S-K., Montanarella, L., Spaargaren, O., Dent, D., Filippi, N. and Reuter, H.I. (2005). Download report: (Size: 1.8 MB) Preview FrontPage :