17 pages, 3 figures. Contributing authors: Anna Marthe Elegersma, Olafur Arnalds. ; This chapter explains how sustainable development can be translated into principles of sustainable land management. In Chapter 5 these principles will be related to European soil protection law. One of the conclusions of the SCAPE case studies described in Chapter 4 is that although principles are known, they are sometimes ignored. Maybe there are good reasons for ignoring principles and accepting soil and land degradation as a consequence. However, in most cases the choices or risks are not debated. This is partly because too frequently, decision makers do not have access to the correct information or influence. Knowing the principles is only half of the problem; the second half is requiring people to act upon them, which is a question of political will and prevailing norms. The anecdotes described in the next section show what can happen with soil conservation advice in practice. These examples are mainly from Spain and Norway, but they could have come from almost anywhere in Europe. ; Scape Project. ; Peer reviewed
28 páginas. El libro tiene 486 páginas. ; Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. It will potentially lead to such eventualities as drought and famine, which some of the CWANA countries have already experienced. The capacity of national governments and communities to mitigate disasters will be limited in the short to medium term, rendering them still vulnerable to the adversities of climate change. Climate change is a global issue with regional implications. Many multilateral environmental agreements address these issues, and some countries of the region have ratified some such agreements (CWANA, 2009). Effects of climate change on land use refers to both how land use might be altered by climate change and what land management strategies would mitigate the negative effects of climate change (Dale, 1997). Asia is the most populous continent, population in 2002 was reported to be about 3,902 million, of which almost 61% is rural and 38.5% lives within 100 km of the coast (Duedall & Maul, 2005). Asia is divided into seven subregions, namely North Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Tibetan Plateau, East Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia. ; Peer reviewed
Soil degradation has both indirect and direct effects on the quality of surface and ground waters. In this sense, agriculture is one of the key activities causing water quality degradation in many parts of Mediterranean systems. In the European Union, the purpose of the Water Framework Directive (European Commission, 2000) is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface, transitional, coastal and ground waters too. A major source of surface and ground water pollution is the diffuse contamination caused by nitrates in agricultural lands. This specific water protection was regulated by the Nitrates Directive (ND, 1991/676/EC), which in Spain was developed by a Royal Decree (261/1996/BOE), and in Andalusia region by a Decree (36/2008/BOJA) for the designation of water quality vulnerability zones (22 zones) and an Order of the Regional Government of Andalusia (18.11.2008/BOJA) to establish the action programs (1 unique program) to be implemented by farmers. However, the Nitrates Directive considers that different action programs may be established for different vulnerable zones or parts of those areas. Also, these action programs must take into account scientific and technical information that are available on each particular soil and climatic conditions, such as rainfall erosivity, length of the growing season, slope, soil infiltration and soil denitrification capacity. Within this context, the agro-ecological decision support system MicroLEIS DSS (technology developed by CSIC-IRNAS and transferred to Evenor-Tech, www.evenor-tech.com) is considered a very appropriate tool to include the soil and climatic attributes for a better identification of vulnerable zones and formulation of action programs. In this paper, the MicroLEIS DSS modelling infrastructure to predict soil erosion and contamination risks (ImpelERO and Pantanal models, basically) is discussed, as a scientific approach to identify detailed vulnerable areas, and formulate site-specific management plans for sustainable water use and protection in Andalusia region. The high variability of the results from this agro-ecological land evaluation research in Water Quality Vulnerability Zones demonstrates the importance of using soil information in decision-making regarding the formulation of site-specific soil use and management strategies. ; Peer Reviewed
Soil degradation has both indirect and direct effects on the quality of surface and ground waters. In this sense, agriculture is one of the key activities causing water quality degradation in many parts of Mediterranean systems. In the European Union, the purpose of the Water Framework Directive (European Commission, 2000) is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface, transitional, coastal and ground waters too. A major source of surface and ground water pollution is the diffuse contamination caused by nitrates in agricultural lands. This specific water protection was regulated by the Nitrates Directive (ND, 1991/676/EC), which in Spain was developed by a Royal Decree (261/1996/BOE), and in Andalusia region by a Decree (36/2008/BOJA) for the designation of water quality vulnerability zones (22 zones) and an Order of the Regional Government of Andalusia (18.11.2008/BOJA) to establish the action programs (1 unique program) to be implemented by farmers. However, the Nitrates Directive considers that different action programs may be established for different vulnerable zones or parts of those areas. Also, these action programs must take into account scientific and technical information that are available on each particular soil and climatic conditions, such as rainfall erosivity, length of the growing season, slope, soil infiltration and soil denitrification capacity. Within this context, the agro-ecological decision support system MicroLEIS DSS (technology developed by CSIC-IRNAS and transferred to Evenor-Tech, www.evenor-tech.com) is considered a very appropriate tool to include the soil and climatic attributes for a better identification of vulnerable zones and formulation of action programs. In this paper, the MicroLEIS DSS modelling infrastructure to predict soil erosion and contamination risks (ImpelERO and Pantanal models, basically) is discussed, as a scientific approach to identify detailed vulnerable areas, and formulate site-specific management plans for sustainable water use and protection in Andalusia region. The high variability of the results from this agro-ecological land evaluation research in Water Quality Vulnerability Zones demonstrates the importance of using soil information in decision-making regarding the formulation of site-specific soil use and management strategies.
10 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, 60 references.-- Trabajo publicado en la Section 2: Country Reports.-- El volumen consta de 202 páginas.-- Meeting at Soil Survey and Land Research Centre Cranfield University, Silsoe, UK., que tuvo lugar del 21-22, abril, 1998. ; Meetings of European Union Heads of Soil Survey Organisations were held in 1989 and 1994 respectively. Both were followed by publication of monographs describing the state-of-the-art in each of the member countries (Hodgson 1991; Le Bas & Jamagne 1996). Limited progress has been made in Spain since then, except for a proposal for an ambitious macroproject (PNCTA), the prospects for which now seem somewhat uncertain. Readers interested in historical aspects of Spanish pedology and/or soil mapping can refer to studies by Díaz Fierros (1979 and 1997) Mudarra (1989 and 1994); Sunyer (1996), Ibáñez el al. (1991, 1997), Boixadera and Ibáñez, (1996) and Guerra, (1997). This paper describes progress in soil survey from 1994 to 1998 and provides additional information on monitoring and soil databases developed in Spain. Nevertheless, some Spanish soil databases arising from some initiatives in Pan-European programmes are not included in the discussion here due to their particular scope. The Spanish contribution to the ICP Forest programme, recently published on a CD-ROM that holds morphological, taxonomic and analytical information corresponding to 453 soil profiles, is a case in point (Montoya & López-Arias, 1998). ; Peer reviewed
12 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, 74 references ; Soil C sequestration through changes in land use and management is one of the sustainable and long-term strategies to mitigate climate change. This research explores and quantifies the role of soil and land use as determinants of the ability of soils to store C along Mediterranean systems. Detailed studies of soil organic C (SOC) dynamics are necessary in order to identify factors determining fluctuations and intensity of changes. In this study, SOC contents from different soil and land use types have been investigated in Andalusia (Southern Spain). We have used soil information from different databases, as well as land use digital maps, climate databases and digital elevation models. The average SOC content for each soil control section (0–25, 25–50 and 50–75 cm) was determined and SOC stocks were calculated for each combination of soil and land use type, using soil and land cover maps. The total organic C stocks in soils of Andalusia is 415 Tg for the upper 75 cm, with average values ranging from 15.9 Mg C ha−1 (Solonchaks under "arable land") to 107.6 Mg C ha−1 (Fluvisols from "wetlands"). Up to 55% of SOC accumulates in the top 25 cm of soil (229.7 Tg). This research constitutes a preliminary assessment for modelling SOC stock under scenarios of land use and climate change. ; This research has been partly funded by the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Science (Research Project 851238) and the Regional Ministry of Environment (Research Project 0501/0268) of the Andalusian Government. Ozren Bogdanovic (Andalusian Centre of Developmental Biology, CABD) proofread a previous version of the manuscript. ; Peer reviewed
