reed2 meadow grid

IP SOIL II

The main problem which we were discussing last year in the first phase of IPSOIL I from 2004 to 2005 was, that soil and land is a limited resource and cannot be enlarged.

The second phase of IPSOIL II from 2005 to 2006 deals with conceptualizing a progam about soil and land use towards a thematic strategy for soil protection and sustainable land use. The question will be, how to bridge between the available scientific knowledge on one side and those who need it for defining policies, and operational procedures, such as stakeholders, and politicians and decision makers on the other side, to keep soil and land use multifunctional.

Therefore we have to distinguish the dimension of space and time on the world level, the country level and the individual piece of land. All three levels are interconnected by cultural, social and economic driving forces, ranging from economic and social theories to the question of property rights or prices for energy and other goods, thus connecting the world level with the household level.

On the basis of the soil indicator framework – the DPSIR approach – and its application in practice helps to understand complex systems and processes and react by developing responses and solutions for strategies and operational procedures, to create landscapes involving with great responsibility. This framework of the ´five main soil research clusters´ serve as a theoretical background for our project.

Download for further reading:

BLUM, Winfried E.H.; BÜSING, Jürgen; MONTARELLA, Luca (2004):
 Research needs support of the European thematic strategy for soil protection. Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol 23, No.10-11, 2004. Published by Elsevier Ltd.