Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Project: LIFE08 ENV IT 000428 SOILPROMONITORING FOR SOIL PROTECTION

LOCALIZATION: Sicilia e Peloponneso

BUDGET:

Total cost : 1,450,192.00

Co-financing UE: 49,83%

PARTECIPANTS:

Coordinator beneficiary: CRA-ABP

Associated: NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS; REGION OF PELOPONNESOS; REGIONE SICILIANA

DURATION: start: 01/01/10 - end: 31/12/13

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

BACKGROUND

• Soil is a non-renewable natural resource• It performs crucial ecological, social and economic

functions for human activities and ecosystems survival• Soils are being increasingly degraded or irreversibly lost

across the EU• Estimated costs of soil degradation reach up to €38/$50

billions per year, but damage to soil ecological functions is excluded

• Costs of soil degradation are mainly borne by society at large and not by the land user

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

Soil degradation processes

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

Main Policy Areas

• 6th Environmental Action Program (EU Soil Thematic Strategy)

• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)• Climate Change Policy (Post-Kyoto debate, LULUCF)• Energy Policy (Renewable Energies Directive)• Biodiversity (Nature) Protection Policy (EU Biodiversity Strategy)• Water Protection Policy (WFD, Groundwater Directive)• Forest Protection Policy (Forest FOCUS, ICP Forest)• Regional Policies (INTERREG)• Food Safety (PPR Registration, EFSA)• Food Security (FAO)• Development Policy (ACP-Observatory)

• Waste Policy (Biowaste Directive, Sewage Sludge Directive)

• …etc

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

Impact Assessment at European CommissionStandardised procedure, mandatory for all policies

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

Resource Efficiency RoadmapCOM(2011 571, 20.9.2011)

• By 2020, • water abstraction stays, as a rule, below 20% of available

renewable water resources.• Maintain and enhance ecosystems and their services by

establishing green infrastructure and restoring at least 15% of degraded ecosystems.

• Annual land take (i.e. the increase of artificial land) does not exceed 800 km² per year at the EU level.

• The area of land in the EU that is subject to soil erosion of more than 10 tonnes per hectare per year should be reduced by at least 25%.

• Soil organic matter levels do not decrease overall and increase for soils currently with less than 3.5% organic matter.

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

OBJECTIVES

The SOILPRO project has the overall objective of halting soil degradation in line with the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.

It will develop a web-based application tool (Soil Monitoring Software, SMS) that can support local and regional authorities and Member States in their efforts to identify and assess areas at risk, as well as to monitor the effectiveness of soil protection measures

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

MAIN DELIVERABLES, ACTIONS AND RESPONSABLES

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

- Coordination, Web site creation and feeding

Action 1

CRA and ALL

-Web-based application tool (Soil Monitoring Software, SMS)

-Risk areas identification and assessment for 6 soil threats (Water erosion, Organic matter decline , Compaction, Salinization, Landslides, Acidification) in the two regions-Scenario analysis (actual and potential dynamic of degraded natural and agricultural ecosystems)

Actions 2 and 7

EKPA, CRA(Sicily, Peloponnesus )

-Regional plans of soil protection measures (elaboration and implementation)

Action 6

Sicily, Peloponnesus (CRA, EKPA)

Proximal and remote monitoring of the effectiveness of the soil protection measures

Action 3

ALL

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

OTHERS IMPORTANT DELIVERABLES, ACTIONS AND RESPONSABLES

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

- Thematic databases of Sicily and Peloponnesus

Action 3 Sicily, CRA, EKPA

- Training of personnel for the SMS (potential users)

Actions 4 and 5

Sicily, Peloponnesus

- Partecipation open days, green weeks Actions 4

ALL

- Awareness-raising campaign about soil conservation and CC (conferences, questionnaires, hand-books,....)

Actions 4 and 8

Sicily, Peloponnesus (CRA, EKPA)

- Dissemination (video, newsletters, Project Leaflets, notice boards, guidelines, e-learning….

Actions 5 and 8

Sicily, Peloponnesus (CRA, EKPA)

-Technical reports (annual and final) Action 8 EKPA, CRA

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

• Activities, financial and administrative reports have at least 6 months of delay

• We must set the next plan of activities and budget expenditures so to reach the 150% threshold to get the second instalment

• We must decide whether to ask for an extension of the project

State of the art

Mid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABP

Critical issues• SOILPRO is much articulated and complex: many

actions and many deliverables. There are few single responsibilities, but many shared responsibilities for a single action

• There is the need for every partner to find one dedicated and reference person (in addition to the partner leader) to follow the actions and act as contact point for the other partners

• There is also the need for every partner to find a reference person for the administrative issuesMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012,

Florence

Edoardo Costantini, project manager

CRA-ABPMid-term Meeting, 16 May 2012, Florence