Finding and sharing solutions to

protect our soils

Europe's soil research hub

Who is RECARE-Hub for?

Farmers & Forestry

RECARE-Hub contains the latest information on preventing soil threats, and cost-benefit analysis on proven remediation techniques.

Industry

Discover innovative sustainable land management measures that can combat threats to key soil functions.

Policy makers

Find out more about land care strategies relevant to your region and our integrated assessment of existing soil related policy.

Researchers

Access a wealth of European research data on soil threats and the efficacy of land care strategies.

Teachers & environmentalists

Whether you're a teacher or a concerned environmentalist, find out why Europe's soils are under threat and what researchers are doing to help combat the problems.

Resources designed for you

 

The soil that underpins Europe's agricultural systems faces numerous threats.

If you are interested in learning about specific soil threats, you can explore the individual threats below. If you want detailed guidance for assessing soil degradation or learning about management measures to prevent and remediate against soil degradation, you might want to head straight over to RECARE's resources.

 

RESOURCES

A full list of RECARE's project reports can be found in the table below

 

 Report Title Date
 WP1 Project Management  

 Gender Equality Report: Reporting Period 1

25 June 2015

 Gender Equality Report: Reporting Period 2

12 Dec 2016

 Gender Equality Report: Reporting Period 3

25 May 2018
   
 WP 2 Providing the base for RECARE regarding data collection and methods  

 D2.1 Soil threat in Europe: Status, methods, drivers and effects on ecosystem services

 15 Oct 2015
   
WP 3 State of degradation and conservation in the RECARE Case Study sites   

 D3.1 Case Study Descriptions

 30 April 2015

 D3.2 Report on the current state of degradation and conservation

 19 Dec 2016
   
 WP 4 Stakeholder participation and valuation  

 D4.1 Stakeholder and Institutional Analysis

 10 Nov 2014
 D4.2 Report about stakeholder valuation of ecosystem services  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 WP4-3 guidelines  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 01 Frienisberg  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 02 Caramulo  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 03 Peristerona  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 04 Messara  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 07 Canyoles river basin  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 08 Gunnarsholt  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 09 Vansjø  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 10 Myjava  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 11 Veenweidegebied  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 12 Broddbo  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 13 OldenEibergen  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 14 Veneto  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 15 Guadiamar  18 July 2018
 Stakeholder Workshop 3 report CS 17 Isle Of Purbeck  18 July 2018
   
 WP 5 Selection of promising prevention, remediation and restoration measures  

 D5.1 Inclusion of prevention, remediation and restoration measures in the WOCAT databases

 26 May 2017

 D5.2 Participatory decision-making on sustainable land management to combat soil threats in Europe

 26 May 2017
   
 WP 6 Testing and demonstration of prevention, remediation and restoration measures  

 D6.1 Harmonized Field Monitoring strategy for assessing the effectiveness of the selected, innovative soil prevention, remediation, and restoration measures.effectiveness of the selected, innovative soil prevention, remediation, and restoration measures.

 12 May 2017
 D6.2 Assessment of the effectiveness of implemented measures
regarding combating soil degradation, and to restore soil functions and ecosystem services
 18 July 2018
 D6.3 Report on Demonstration activities per Case Study site 18 July 2018
   
 WP 7 Costs, benefits and adoption of prevention, remediation and restoration measures  
 D7.1 Impact Assessment on Ecosystem Services 11 April 2018
 D7.2 Model assessments of the cost-effectiveness of
prevention/remediation/restoration measures for all Case Study areas
 18 July 2018
   
 WP 8 Applicability and effects of measures at the European level  
 D8.1 The integrated PESERA, DESMICE, and METRONAMICA model  18 July 2018
 D8.2 Report on model validation  Due 2018
 D8.3 Report on inter-threat comparison  Due early 2019
 D8.4 Report on barriers and opportunities of adoption at European scale  Due early 2019
   
 WP 9 Policy analysis and recommendations  

 D9.1 Up-to-date review of EU policies and integrated impact assessment methodology

 22 Dec 2016
 D9.2 Report on the integrated impact assessment of national and EU policies  Due 2018
 D9.3 Final policy recommendations  Due 2018
   

 WP 10 Data use, management and hosting

 

 D10.1 Web interface in the European Soil Data Centre for accessing project Data

12 May 2017

 D10.2 Quality check of European datasets contributing to RECARE project

 12 April 2018

Fact sheets produced from the RECARE project can be found below.  Please click on the links to download the pdfs.

 

Soil Threat Fact Sheets

FactsheetFront cover     FactSheet SalinizationFrontCover200x280   Compaction frontcover  
 Soil erosion by water (PT, DE)   Soil erosion by wind    Soil Salinization (EL)    Soil Compaction   
Front cover   FactSheet FrontCover   OMPeat FrontCover   OMMineralSoil Frontcover  
Soil Sealing    Floods and Landslides    OM decline in peat soils (SE, NL)   OM decline in mineral soils (ITNL)  
 Contamination frontcover   Factsheet Frontcover        
 Soil contamination (ES)   Desertification   Loss of Soil Biodiversity      

 

 Case Study Experiment Fact Sheets

 

Soil threat Fact sheet title Case study country
Soil erosion Effect of the Dyker on infiltration, soil erosion and waterlogging Switzerland
Soil erosion Post-fire mulching to reduce soil erosion (EN)  (PT1)  (PT2) Portugal
Soil erosion Effects of mountain terrace rehabilitation (EN)  (EL) Cyprus
Soil salinization Solutions for preventing soil salinization Crete
Soil erosion Use of straw mulch to prevent soil erosion in vineyards Spain
Soil erosion Use of chipped pruned branches to prevent soil erosion in apricot orchards Spain
Soil erosion Rock fragment cover to control soil losses in tillage rainfed Mediterranean crops Spain
Soil erosion

Use of land abandonment to prevent soil erosion in mountainous areas 

Spain
Soil erosion and desertification Reclaiming wind eroded and desertified land Iceland
Flooding and landslides Preventing floods & landslides through stream bank stability (EN) (NO) Norway
Flooding Preventing flooding through small retention ponds (EN) (NO) Norway
Flooding and soil erosion Effects of different crops on surface runoff (EN) (SK) Slovakia
Soil erosion Preventing gully erosion (EN) (SK) Slovakia
Soil erosion Understanding erosion processes & sediment transport (EN) (SK) Slovakia
Increasing or maintaining soil organic matter Undersowing of grass in maize (EN) (NL) The Netherlands
Increasing or maintaining soil organic matter Incorporation of local biomass (EN) (NL) The Netherlands
Soil contamination Phytoremediation of soil contamination by trace elements (EN) (ES) Spain
Soil contamination Modelling soil contamination remediation measures (EN) (ES) Spain
Soil contamination Use of amendements for heavy metal soil pollution (EN) (RO) Romania

PublicationTree1The aim of the RECARE Publication Trees is to provide a visual representation of all the outputs of the RECARE project.  The trees provide links to RECARE reports, scientific publications, multi-media and media coverage from the project. Please click on the links below to view the Publication Trees.

RECARE Publications Map

Soil Threats Publication Tree

Integrated Assessment Model

IAMPresentation frontpage

A key output of the RECARE project is a spatially explicity and dynamic Integrated Assessment model (IAM) for preventing and mitigating soil threats.  The model will allow an assessment of the impact of (European) policies, land use and land management on a range of soil threats.  It will be useful: 

  • For policy makers and analysts as well as their technicians at national and regional levels
  • For Innovators willing to invest time in co-development of IAM
  • For strategic (inter)national and regional planning
  • To support – not replace – decision making
  • To facilitate analysis, learning and communication prior to decision-making!

More information about the model can be found by clicking on the presentation above.

Here are some descriptions of the models that are being used in the development of the IAM:

Metronamica

Metronamica is a modelling system that allows planners to resemble and assess the effects of their planning measure on development. It is an integrated spatial decision support system which can model both socio-economic and physical planning aspects. It helps planners to produce a idea of some the impacts of external factors and policy measures on the development of the area. This allows planners to consider future problems they may encounter and come up with different development plans and solutions to the problems. 

PESERA

PESERA stands for the Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment. It is a model that uses process-based and spatially distributed model to evaluate soil erosion by water and assess the risk of the soil erosion around Europe. The model can help to predict erosion from tillage and wind. The results from the model have been confirmed at catchment level and have been checked with results of applying alternative risk assessments for erosion across Europe. The soil erosion estimates are done by applying the PESERA grid model at 1km, it uses data from the European Soil Database, CORINE land cover, climate data from the MARS Project and a Digital Elevation Model. The validity of the estimates are dependent on the accuracy of the meteorological data and the accuracy of soil coverage data. 

 

For more information about the IAM, please contact Hedwig van Delden This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Workshop on Soil Threats and Ecosystem Services

ecoservsmea 1 44635

 

Although there is a large body of knowledge available on soil threats in Europe, the complexity and functioning of soil systems and their interaction with human activities, climate change (CC), and ecosystem services (ESS) is still not fully understood.

 

Therefore, the Work package 2 team of the RECARE project organised an ESS workshop in Wageningen on May 19th 2014. The purpose of the workshop was to exchange background information of the concept of EcoSystem Services and their interaction with the main topic within RECARE: Soil Threats.

 

The presentations given by Leon Braat, Mark Everard and Gudrun Schwilch have been recorded on video. These recordings can be viewed below. For convenience, the presentations and the discussion/questions afterwards have been separated in different recordings. Both can be seen below.

 

The PowerPoint presentations themselves can be downloaded from the table below. 

# Presenter PowerPoint Presentation Download
1 Dr. Leon Braat  Social, economic & institutional aspects of ESS and EU [7.2Mb]
2 Dr. Mark Everard Soil threats and ecosystem services [2.1Mb]
Dr. Gudrun Schwilch  ESS and soil functions in RECARE [8.9Mb]

     

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subcategories

Case Study Sites

 Click on the map below to find out more about RECARE's case study sites
Case Studies

Project Partners

ABOUT US

RECARE was a multidisciplinary research project of 27 different organisations that assessed the threats to Europe's soils and identified innovative solutions to prevent further soil degradation.  The project ran from 2013 - 2018.

Academic Contact
Professor Coen Ritsema 
Wageningen University
E: coen.ritsema[AT]wur.nl

Media Contact
Dr Matt Reed
E: mreed[AT]glos.ac.uk

Funding

Funded by the European Commission FP7 Programme, ENV.2013.6.2-4 ‘Sustainable land care in Europe’.

EU grant agreement: 603498.

Project officer: Maria Yeroyanni.

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