Environmental assessment of soil for monitoring : Volume IIa: Inventory & monitoring

The ENVASSO Project (Contract 022713) was funded 2006-8, under the European Commission 6th Framework Programme of Research, with the objective of defining and documenting a soil monitoring system appropriate for soil protection at continental level. The ENVASSO Consortium, comprising 37 partners drawn from 25 EU Member States, reviewed almost 300 soil indicators, identified existing soil inventories and monitoring programmes in the Member States, designed and programmed a database system to capture, store and supply soil profile data, and drafted procedures and protocols appropriate for inclusion in a European soil monitoring network of sites that are geo-referenced and at which a qualified sampling process is or could be conducted. Volume IIa is the first of two parts that together constitute the most comprehensive study to date of the soil inventory and monitoring activities in the European Union. Volume IIa 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. The second part, Volume IIb, reports the results of a Survey of National Soil Monitoring Networks, which include comprehensive fact sheets that list for each national network, its purpose, the sampling strategy adopted, the analytical methods used and the number of operational monitoring sites.