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

Top Links

European Soil Portal - Soil Data and Information Systems

This European Soil Portal is an integral part of the European Soil Data Centre, which is one of the ten environmental data centres in Europe and is the focal point for soil data at European level. This European Soil Portal contributes to a thematic data infrastructure for soils in Europe. It presents data and information regarding soils at European level. It connects to activities within the Joint Research Centre (JRC) concerning soil (JRC SOIL Action). It serves also as a vehicle to promote the activities of the European Soil Bureau Network. Spatial data collection and processing within this infrastructure is performed according to emerging ideas behind the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) initiative

 

FAO Soil Portal

This soil portal launched by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) FAO offers a comprehensive collection of soil maps and over 700 technical reports.

 

Videos raising awareness of soil threats

Let's Talk About Soil  - This animated film tells the reality of soil resources around the world, covering the issues of degradation, urbanization, land grabbing and overexploitation; the film offers options to make the way we manage our soils more sustainable. A variety of different language versions are available:

 

 

Dirt! The Movie Excursion into the realms of soil, the number one lifegiver on Earth, its fundamentally important ecological functions, our poor understanding of it as well as our destructive relationship with it. They are so essential to life and thus to us, that our survival is directly dependent on their understanding and protection!

 

 

The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has developed a set of 12 videos for the International Year of Soil 2015, each centered around a monthly soil related theme.

 

ISRIC - World Soil Information

ISRIC - World Soil Information is an independent, science-based foundation. It has a mandate to serve the international community with information about the world's soil resources to help addressing major global issues. ISRIC is the ICSU World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils) since 1989 and it collaborates with a wide range of partners worldwide.

 

European Environment Agency - Soil

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is an agency of the European Union. Their task is to provide sound, independent information on the environment.  They are a major information source for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. 

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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