Soil matters for our future, so does investment in research

The SIEUSOIL research project is after a three-year journey coming to its end. Its aim and objectives are being successfully reached and capitalised on.

Eurasian Soil Platform

SIEUSOIL has managed in close cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to lay down the cornerstone for the Global Soil Information System (GloSIS). The SIEUSOIL/GloSIS ontology is available upon request under an open licence and it includes 11 modules for 340 soil properties.

Moreover, SIEUSOIL closely collaborates with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) on evaluating the accuracy of soil related datasets of self evidence of data providers and a paper on Land Use Policy relative to these findings is soon to be published. 

Spatial Land Suitability Analysis Tool

The scope was to develop a methodology for Land Suitability Analysis (LSA) based on several indicators describing the current and future conditions of an area, along with other factors expressing soil health, crop growth and the socioeconomic status. Results have up to now showed that the method is capable of producing LSA maps. The procedure of LSA managed to produce pilot areas maps that are user friendly as they provide spatial information of suitability performance per crop both as a percentage value, and as suitability class according to FAO.

SIEUSOIL is coordinated by Professor Dimitrios Moshou (dmoshou@auth.gr) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that leads the consortium of 23 partners, 16 based in Europe and 7 in China.