Environmental assessment of soil for monitoring : Volume IVa: Prototype evaluation

The ENVASSO Project (Contract 022713) was funded under the European Commission 6th Framework Programme of Research, 2006-8, 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, 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. This volume (IVa) summarises the results of testing 22 procedures in 28 Pilot Areas in the Member Sates. An accompanying volume (IVb) describes each of these pilot area studies in detail; some are transnational and in total they cover a wide range of soil-landscapes from the north to the south of Europe.