LIFE & Soil protection LIFE, the EU funding tool for the Environment
Since 1992, LIFE has contributed to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental policy and legislation by co-financing pilot or demonstration projects with European added value. Concerning soil issues, LIFE has supported initiatives that mitigate multiple threats to soil and ensure correct management and optimal quality of EU’s edaphic resources.
The SOILCONS-WEB project developed a flexible and user-friendly Decision Supporting System (DSS) to assist municipalities and other relevant stakeholders with soil and landscape management. The tool is able to simulate, for a predefined area, the impact of land use on key ecosystem services such as the production of food, water adsorption and carbon sink potential. For instance, the tool can calculate the lost hydrological function of sealed soil, based on an analysis of the different soil types in the area, rainfall, etc. This allows a local planner understand and quantify, for example, the loss of soil water absorption capacity caused by a new housing development on a former greenfield site, and to take an informed decision as a result. For this, the DSS provides and uses information on relevant issues such as population, water resources, rainfall, land use, urban fragmentation, geology, urban development and main soil types. In addition to soil sealing, there are sub-tools on other land management issues, such as groundwater pollution and soil erosion. The DSS is very flexible. Each module is targeted at specific end-users, from urban planners to farmers, NGOs and the forestry sector. It can also adapt to specific geographic focus – from a municipality down to an individual farm or villa. This tool holds high transferability potential and can actively contribute to increase landscape awareness and ‘green’ urban development at city council level.
MEDAPHON
The MoorLIFE project successfully demonstrated a number of innovative approaches to landscape-scale blanket bog restoration. Bogs and peatlands are large depository of organic soil carbon. Recent estimates put the figure at 445 Gt of organic carbon stored in the 2.8 million km2 of peatlands existing world-wide.
has developed an innovative tool able to continuously monitor biological activity of soil dwelling micro-fauna. The tool, called the EDAPHOLOG System, consists of a probe buried in the soil in which insects are trapped. These probes are equipped with a technology that is able to: • count the insects and estimate their body size; • estimate microbiological activity in soil with different moisture content; and • record soil temperature and humidity.
MoorLIFE targeted 886 ha of blanket bog located in the South Pennine Moors, a Natura 2000 network site. Bogs habitats in the area are the most degraded in the world, due to 250 years of acid rain, intensive grazing, peat cutting, managed burning and wildfires. The restoration was carried out in four phases using a number of pioneering restoration methods: • Stabilisation and prevention of erosion of the remaining peat and blanket bog with a layer of heather brash and geotextiles. • Application of lime, seed and fertiliser to establish a nurse crop of grasses that will continue to stabilise the peat and allow dwarf shrubs to establish. • Gully blocking to raise the water table and enable the proper functioning of the blanket bog. • Reintroduction of the archetypal blanket bog plant species, Sphagnum, on degraded areas.
The system also records and remotely sends real-time information via radio antennae to a central database using GPRS and the Internet. The information on soil biological and microbiological activity can be used by various stakeholders to quickly identify areas of very low biodiversity or biodiversity ‘hotspots’. For instance, the impact of plant protection actions that affect soil biodiversity, such as insecticide spraying, can be followed in real-time, allowing farmers take betterinformed decisions. Soil contamination and bioremediation actions can also be assessed quickly for impacts on soil biota. The device can operate for several months without human intervention. As the first automated real-time counting device for soil micro-fauna, the EDAPHOLOG System has great potential as a tool for supporting local authority decision-making and helping EU Member States implement the recommendations of the EU’s Soil Thematic Strategy.
Preliminary results from a carbon audit conducted by the project show that the LIFE project’s revegetation of bare peat will have a carbon benefit of at least four times the carbon emissions generated by the restoration work and potentially up to 30 times more.
LIFE E ST
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LIFE08 ENV/H/000292
PROJE NT
IRONME NV
LIFE08 ENV/IT/000408
LAND CONTAMINATION Photo: LIFE07 ENV/GR/000280
Photo: LIFE08 NAT/UK/000202
CARBON CAPTURE Photo: LIFE08 ENV/H/000292
SOIL BIODIVERSITY Photo: LIFE08 ENV/IT/000408
SOIL SEALING
PRODOSOL developed an integrated approach to the problem of disposing of olive mill waste (OMW) on agricultural soil. This system, which has great potential for transferability, comprises two components: • Two innovative and user-friendly monitoring tools. One for soil that monitors 11 chemical parameters and evaluates soil risk, the other for assessing the state of water bodies in the disposal area. • The demonstration of two methodologies for soil remediation and protection — i.e. bioremediation and zeolite application on soil. These practices, which are well-known worldwide, have never been implemented for OMW disposal areas. The monitoring systems are highly innovative, given that nothing similar had been devised prior to the project. The mill owners will be able to measure on-site COD, BOD and other parameters in their waste, thus enhancing waste management and safe disposal. Concerning the soil remediation methods, bioremediation proved effective in reducing soil polyphenols (by 72.6%), as well as total nitrogen and available boron and iron. Regarding zeolite application, it managed to stabilise and reduce soil organic matter, total nitrogen, boron and phosphorus; to reduce electrical conductivity; and to stabilise exchangeable potassium and iron. Project conclusions have been compiled in a series of legislative recommendations for olive oil waste management - both statutory and voluntary - of relevance to policymakers in the Mediterranean region.
LIFE08 NAT/UK/000202 LIFE07 ENV/GR/000280
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Environment Visit the LIFE website: ec.europa.eu/life poster-soil-commission.indd 1
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