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THEMES

CONFERENCE TOPICS

1. Soil sealing

Chair: Jaroslava Sobocká

The world is becoming more and more urbanized, and by which serious problems related to land resource use and ecosystem protection are emerged. Many countries are experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization. For decades, soil survey and soil research have been largely focused on agricultural and forest lands, while intensively managed and disturbed soils have not been much investigated as revealed by the white areas on soil maps. Urban areas are characterised by a strong spatial heterogeneity resulting from the various land use and capacity including inputs of exogenous materials and the mixing of soil material. Only through a multi-disciplinary approach that urban soils will be better understood and their use optimised to protect human health and quality of natural resources, e.g. groundwater quality. This topic therefore includes main problems:

· brownfields,

· urban development,

· transport constructions.

2. Soil degradation

Chair: Pavel Novák

The direct damages caused by soil and land degradation in Europe are estimated on 38 milliards Euro per year. Papers of this topic should be therefore devoted to following different processes:

· erosion,

· compaction and crusting,

· acidification,

· loss of organic matter,

· salinization,

· problems of drought and desertification,

· soil sealing and brownfield rehabilitation,

· soil pollution and contamination,

· fires of forest,

· methods of remediation and reclamation.

3. Soil reclamation

Chair: Jiří Kulhavý

Soil reclamation presents a packet of painful problems, which concern not only Europe but the all world. In the frame of conference special attention would be paid to:

· Land drainage: its impact on soil functions, its ecologically sound exploitation and maintenance, rehabilitation, adaptation to new conditions or decommissioning; its integration into land consolidation projects and river basin management plans.

· Irrigation of agricultural crops, grasslands, sport grounds, recreation facilities and landscape vegetation. Its impact on soil functions. The use of pre-treated wastewater for irrigation, e.g. for growing energy crops. Automation of irrigation, soil moisture sensors, control systems. Soil data needed for irrigation control.

· Retention and infiltration capacity of agricultural, forest and urban soils across scales (from soil samples over soil profiles, polypedons, land parcels and catenas to whole catchments and landscape mosaics). Its conservation and improvement in agriculture, forestry and water management. Landscape control of floods, especially the role of headwater catchments and floodplains. European and national policies.

4. Methods of monitoring

Chair: Milan Sáňka

Realizing the fact that only systematic monitoring can provide reliable data to know the status and changes of soil properties, most countries developed their own monitoring systems. The effort to establish the European soil monitoring network has not been successful yet, which strengthens the need for cooperation among the national networks, both in the field of methodical principles and data processing.

The main focus of this section is to discuss different methodical procedures in order to improve the representativeness of monitoring systems and also to discuss the results and their use to combat soil degradation processes. Experiences in use of soil monitoring results in the field of soil protection policy are welcome.