EUROSOIL 2012

S13.1.

Title: Soils and archaeology
Convener: Füleky György - Szent István University - Hungary
Co-Conveners: Dergacheva Maria - Russian Academy of Sciences SB - Russian Federation
Magdolna Vicze - Matrica Muzeum - Hungary

This Symposium could be the 3th with this name. The first one was organized in Hungary (2001 Százhalombatta), the second one in Italy (2003 Pisa). Human activity could create several constructions from/in soil: pits ditches, canals, burial mounts, earth-forts, terraces, etc. This activity always modifies the effects of natural soil forming factors: it can stop, retard, or fasten their effects. It means that soils are the products and at the same time the documents of interactions between men and environment. Archaeology can help time-scaling the soil processes and this way contributes to the reconstruction of former environment, as well. 

S13.2.

Title: Soil status and society
Convener: Hartmann Ingrid - Desertnet International - Germany
Co-Convener: Araya Hailu - Institute for Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

Paul Crutzen has declared the new era of the anthropocene, showing that humans are the factors that are shaping our environment now more than any other. It is therefore necessary, to pay higher attention to anthropogenic factors also in soil sciences. This will be the topic of our panel. Since status and quality of soils is - apart from biophysical factors - also influenced by social, economic and political conditions, the symposion should highlight, how and in which way these various factors in a society influence the status of soils. This could include land tenure, power and trade relations, investments as well as education status etc. in various geographical areas or social strata. Also vice versa, the impact of soil quality on society will be considered, such as food security and food sovereignty. The methodology to be used could be interdisciplinary as a combination of soil sciences with social, anthropological, economic sciences, even linguistics etc.. Since particularly desertification is also a perceived as a process which is considered as a human-environmental interaction, this could also be highlighted.

S13.3.

Title: Soil policy and soil information in a changing world
Convener: Krasilnikov Pavel - Moscow State University - Russian Federation

The soils is a basic natural resourse for human civilization. However, public awareness about soil resourses in the world is insufficient. To a great extent it is a result of inefficient soil policy: the lack of mechanisms to lobby the laws and charties on soil study, conservation and protectrion, the absence of soil propaganda for general public, etc. Also, the effective selling of soil research needs developed tools for soil information management. These tools include the management of soil profile and soil spatial databases, the development of knowledge bases, user-friendly models and programs available for the decision-makers. The synposium is supposed to bring tohetjer the people interested in soil policy for a broad discussion of the devlopment of soil information tools in the European Union, in its particular countries, and in other parts of the world, and the means for interactions with the policy-makers. 

S13.4.

Title: Policy-relevant soil data requirements for Europe (ESBN)
Convener: Lilly Allan - The James Hutton Institute - United Kingdom
Co-Convener: Dobos Endre - University of Miskolc - Hungary

There are a number of EU policies that are not directed at soil protection but nonetheless, rely implicitly on soils data, for example, the Nitrates Directive, the Water Framework Directive and the designation of Less Favoured Areas. Although these policies are implemented at National or regional level, there is an implicit understanding that they are being implemented fairly and equitably. The distribution, quality, scale and availability of soil data is diverse in Europe, making assessments, interpretations and policy support difficult. 
The European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN) is a scientific and technical reference network on soil issues and has identified the provision of robust, up to date soils data for Europe as a vital task for European soil scientists. There are a number of initiatives currently in place to provide harmonized soils data at a European scale and we, the ESBN, would like to propose a symposium to discuss the merits, or otherwise, of the various approaches from Digital Soil Mapping to more traditional soil mapping and data gathering techniques. We would also like to explore how such approaches can take account of soil functions and how this will affect the robustness of policy decisions. 

S13.5.

Title: International critical zone observatory research focusing on soil
Convener: Van Gaans Pauline F.M. - Deltares Soil and Groundwater Systems - Netherlands
Co-Convener: Blum Winfried E.H. - BOKU University Vienna - Austria

The Critical Zone (CZ) is defined as the Earth’s outer layer from vegetation canopy to the soil and groundwater that sustains human life. Soils are at the heart of this CZ, providing key services to society like:

• Food and other biomass production 
• Storage, filtering, and transformation of water, carbon, nutrients, heat etc.
• Biological habitat and gene pool 
• Source of raw materials 
• Physical and cultural heritage 
• Platform for man-made structures and human activity

The long- term sustainable use of these soil services and resources depends on our understanding of the CZ processes and how they are perturbated by Drivers such as land use and climate change. Soils are a non-renewable resource, the functional phase of their overall life cycle should be sustained, -prolonged where possible-, through adequate soil management and policy. A growing international network of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs) enables experiments across global, regional, and local environmental gradients, providing the scientific underpinning for such Responses.

a. Field studies in Critical Zone Observatories
We invite presentations on experimental and observational studies of soil functioning within the CZ. Contributions are welcomed that quantify relations between environmental gradients, soil processes and soil functions; that demonstrate adequate monitoring of relevant indicators for soil State (quality and functioning), or for the relative position within the soil life cycle; that quantify the effects of Pressures (soil threats) on soil State and functioning; or that aim to quantify the societal Impact of sub-optimal soil functioning.

b. Modelling soil within the Critical Zone
This session will explore fundamental aspects of soil carbon dynamics in soil-plant-water-terrestrial ecosystems. Presentations are invited regarding: Carbon dynamics, aggregate stability and turnover and food web dynamic models with respect to field applications and scale dependence; Scaling up modelling issues and verification of up-scaling methodologies from the plot to watershed to region and continental scales; Linking watershed models to Life Cycle Assessments; Modelling studies at Critical Zone Observatories.

S13.6.

Title:Tailored Improvement of Brownfield Regeneration in Europe: A Discussion of State-of-the-Art Approaches, Technologies and Tools, and Comparison with International Context
Convener: Bartke Stephan - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig - Germany
Co-Convener: Marcomini Antonio - University of Venice - Italy

Brownfield regeneration is essential for sustainable land management. In Europe alone, there are over 20,000 large and complexly contaminated sites. In developed as in transition countries, these brownfields threaten scarce soil and water resources and cause environmental and health risks as well as economic and social costs. Currently, the success in brownfield regeneration is unsatisfying in terms of financial and eco-efficiency or social acceptance. Although useful and innovative technologies for site clean-up as well as methods to support decision making processes exist, many are only rarely applied using their entire potential. In this session, presentations discus trans- and interdisciplinary approaches to tackle the challenge that an immense diversification of tools with little connection to each other as well as a lack of consideration of regional and cultural specificities deters end-users from applying available state-of-the-art instruments. Contributions explore integrated approaches for brownfield regeneration proper to end-user needs. Customisable problem- and target-oriented packages of technologies and tools for assessment, investigation, remediation and integrated planning offering a tailored and comprehensive support for those interested in the regeneration of brownfields are put in front. Based on these presentations, the session will allow discussing between contributors and session visitors open aspects and needs that have to be taken into account in future research’s and politics’ design for an improved brownfield regeneration. Participants from outside Europe will be welcomed in order to stimulate comparison within international context. 

W13.1.

Title: Raising awareness of soils: the objectives and work of the European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN)
Convener: Towers William - The James Hutton Institute Aberdeen - United Kingdom
Co-Convener: Broll Gabriele - University of Osnabrueck - Germany

Soil is the often forgotten part of the environment despite its role in a number of global and local issues such as food and fibre production, protecting water supplies, climate change mitigation, biodiversity and flood control. Soil science needs to develop methods to raise awareness of the roles that soils play in these areas and to ensure that their value is given due recognition across all strands of society. This interactive workshop, organised by the ESBN Working Group on Soil Awareness, will provide practical demonstrations and displays of a range of awareness raising initiatives produced by the different members of the ESBN team. Other groups are also cordially invited to present their work. These can include both formal approaches such education in the university sector and briefing notes for policy advisors and politicians and less formal approaches such as the use humour, games or cartoons and the use of ‘alternative’ methods such as Twitter,  U Tube and Facebook  to broaden the scope of the engagement. The workshop will also include a structured open discussion to capture constructive views on the exhibits on display and about awareness raising in general. The overall objective of the workshop is to increase the capacity of scientists working in education and awareness raising across Europe and to encourage and enhance collaborative opportunities. 

W13.2.

Title: Soils of natural and cultural heritage
Convener: Vancampenhout Karen - Associatie K.U.Leuven - Belgium
Co-Convener: Costantini Edoardo - CRA-ABP - Italy

Soils have capacity to store information about their genesis and herald our natural and cultural heritage, referred to as “soil memory”. For instance, soils and soilscapes can document environmental circumstances, landscape evolution, site history, agricultural practices and historic land-use. Hence, this soil memory is of significant scientific, historical, cultural, educational and touristic value. Nevertheless, over the past 60 years the area of undisturbed soil profiles has been decreasing rapidly in Europe, hereby erasing an important yet largely unknown part of our natural and cultural heritage. 
There is an urgent need for debate regarding the definition of soil heritage, its diversity and its classification. Moreover, approaches for the inventory, validation and protection of key sites and soilscapes for heritage on national, European and international scale merit consideration. Additionally, tools and methods need to be evaluated for communicating soil memory towards a broad public and to validate the educational and touristic potential of soil heritage sites.  

W13.3.

Title: Soil conservation policies in Europe: A discussion of different implementation strategies
Convener: Hagemann Nina - Helmoltz Centre for Env. Res (UFZ) Leipzig - Germany
Co-Convener: Prager Katrin - The James Hutton Institute Aberdeen - United Kingdom

Degradation of agricultural soils affects countries all over Europe and provides challenges not only forfarmers but for society as a whole because of its broader environmental implications. Certain farmingpractises foster conservation of agricultural soils, whereas others are known to have damaginginfluence. The project “Soil Conservation and Agriculture” (SoCo), funded by the EuropeanCommission, was able to show that even though policies are mainly designed at European level andapply equally to all member states, the implementation approaches differ widely in scope, contentand information transfer and that implementation strategies are a decisive factor for the success ofpolicy measures. The workshop aims at presenting case studies from the project and comparingdifferent implementation approaches that are applied across Europe by outlining their successfactors. It will be shown that implementation strategies depend on several factors such as the actualdegree of degradation, the knowledge actors have and their strategic interests, experiences farmershave as well as transaction costs and financial aspects. Best practise examples of implementationapproaches will be discussed as well as the question of transferability of lessons learned from onecountry to another. Based on these findings the workshop also provides room for an open discussionon ways forward to evaluate policy effectiveness with a view to make recommendations as towhether additional European legislation on soil conservation is likely to be beneficial.