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Summary of 2.3/Dialogue Session
Soil and land information:
How to support decision making?
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Dialogue Session
2.3 Soil and land information:
How to support decision making?
The thematic thread “Means of implementation, and Monitoring & Accountability”,
Tuesday, 21 April, 2015
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Date
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
DS
Rapporteur:
Sabine Chabrillat (email: [email protected])
Sabine Chabrillat1, Marjoleine Hanegraaf2, Rolf Sommer3, Rik van den Bosch4, Luca
Montanarella5, Bas van Wesemael6, Gudrun Schwilch7, Jaap Harthoorn8, Rastislav Skalsky9,
Juliet Braslow3, Jane Mills10, 11Simone Verzandvoort, Michael Obersteiner9
GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, Germany, 2Nutrient Management Institute,
Netherlands, 3International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Kenya, 4ISRIC World Soil Information, Netherlands, 5European Commission -DG JRC, EU, 6Université catholique de Louvain,
Belgium, 7Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), Switzerland, 8Province of
Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, 9International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria,
10
Countryside and Community Research Institute, UK, 11Alterra Wageningen UR, Netherlands
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In A Nutshell
A global effort for a better link between producers and users of soil and land information is
needed that takes into account the ongoing developments in new and emerging technologies
(such as remote sensing, mobile soil testing, and digital soil mapping), availability of digital data
(web-based, App-based applications), ability of mid-users to utilize the new soil information in
policy- and decision- making relevant information, needs of the different stakeholders (farmer,
regional administrator, country ministry), and impact at decision-making level (local and regional scale, national and EU-policies). The decision making process aiming at sustainable soil
management, whether at farm or higher level, also involves other goals and objectives valued
by stakeholders, e.g. land governance, improved environmental quality, adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
This dialog session aimed: (1) to share knowledge on existing and emerging technologies that
support land and soil monitoring, (2) to highlight ideas on recent developments in the discourse
on soils, their functions and place of soil and land information in enhancing resilience of global,
regional and local food systems, (3) to communicate from scientists to stakeholders the various
outcomes and needs.
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What was surprising or new?
The discussions pointed out that soils are already relevant to a long list of European policies,
and Carbon is the common denominator. Existing maps at European level are not much in use
at national level. They can be, however, utilized in regional or global estimates of gridded crop
models on food security and environmental impact assessments. There is a need for more
mapping at regional level, including land use change, and labile vs. stable organic carbon.
There was general agreement that there are lots of new technologies and innovation tools
developed to deliver a host of soil information at local and regional level.
There is a general issue with linking decision-making to the need of farmers, output from scientists, and role of NGOs/governmental deciders.
Soil data are used at policy level only when (i) they fit with the goals of one or more of the
European policies (ii) they are available on the right governance level (district, province, country), and (iii) they are post-processed in such a way that they translate into understandable
messages for policy makers (e.g. feeding the soil data into more comprehensive modeling systems addressing food systems resilience or other environmental issues).
The participatory discussions and the videos clearly showed that different stakeholders need
different types of information, something that is not new but does not always entered in practice. A better and more nuanced perspective on the demand, utility, and missing elements of
different types of soil and land information is needed and has been provided in this session.
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Dialogue Session
Diverse perspectives
Soil biodiversity maps
An example was discussed of a regional soil biodiversity map. An important aim of the map
was to serve as a rational base for communication with farmers and other stakeholders on improving soil quality. However, the making of such maps is difficult and expensive (soil sampling
+ analysis) and expert knowledge is needed for interpretation. The suggestion was done to
produce a manual how to make and use of a regional soil biodiversity maps.
The possible relationship between soil health, food quality and human health was discussed.
Intuitively many people think such a relationship does exist; however, it is difficult to prove. Soil
health mapping may help to identify the best locations for human food production.
RECARE Ecosystem services framework
The concept of Ecosystem Services is a useful communication tool to highlight the dependence
of human well-being on soils (and land) and to show how soil properties are changed through
land management. In order to use it in decision making, it needs a clear framework and tools for
the valuation and negotiation of the different services and their trade-offs among stakeholders.
Use of emerging technologies, new and innovative spatial soil information
in decision making
There are many new technologies and innovations that, if used properly, can provide a host of
valuable information on soil, for example.
Digital Soil Mapping possibly in combination with a farm management software
Soil spectroscopy can be used to analyze soil samples quick and cheap, and combines
well with Digital Soil Mapping. This technology is available currently both from handheld
and airborne instruments, and soon potentially from global satellites data.
Various perspectives and scales of soil information are needed by different end-users,
especially
Scientists: soil information required is endless
Farmers: very important information is needed that is different than what the scientists
provided
New pathways
It is important to post-process the soil data in such a way that they translate into understandable messages for policy makers. This can mean quite some additional work and should be
seen as an integral part of the data gathering exercise.
There is an important need for recent data and repeated data collection in order to give insight in the changes in soil condition over time.
It is important to include various perspectives on how to support the decision making process
and decision support systems that meets the needs of various stakeholders. In this regard, it
is highly recommended that producers of soil information work more closely with users of soil
information at different levels (scientists, farmers, regional governance) to first identify users
need and then develop a method for soil data gathering, analysis and presenting that fits the
users need.
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