ESA SYMPOSIUM ON EARTH OBSERVATION FOR SOIL PROTECTION AND RESTORATION

Soils are being rediscovered from numerous stand viewpoints: biochemical, ecologic, technical, analytical, social, policy, economic, etc.

The EU soil strategy for 2030 sets out a framework and concrete measures to protect and restore soils and ensure that they are used sustainably. It sets a vision and objectives to achieve healthy soils by 2050, with concrete actions by 2030. Parallelly, ESA has long taken the commitment to monitor and service the soil restauration requirements with the Earth observation means and technologies set in place, particularly through Copernicus.

The ESA Symposium on Earth observation for soil protection and restoration seeks the following objectives:

1. To frame the usability of Earth observation technologies for soil protection and restauration requirements targeted by international and EU related policies, including monitoring, reporting and verification.
2. To present and evaluate the WORLDSOILS Soil Organic Carbon Monitoring System for SOC prediction over bare and permanently covered soils, and the lessons learnt from validation case studies.
3. To gather evolution requirements of EO based soil monitoring systems and options for sustained operations and business models.
4. To prospect ways for a downstream service to support national and European agencies for reporting on soil health/quality and thus, contribute to the Land Degradation Monitoring and reporting on Sustainable Development Goal 15.3.1.
5. To showcase the capacity of satellite remote sensing, alone or combined, for monitoring, validating, reporting or verifying of other specific soil components.

The parallel sessions seek the widest participation from submitted Abstracts, following the logic of the EU Soil Science and policy framework.
ESA strives to give the greatest relevance and impact to this symposium, benefitting from the momentum soils are experiencing led by the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, links to other EU policies, the science-policy framework, the number of soils research funded projects and the promising horizon for satellite missions’ applications in soils and carbon.

Discover more in the event dedicated WEBSITE.

Submit your ABSTRACT by 3 December 2023.