Multifunctional soil conservation and land management through the development of a web based spatial decision supporting system (s-­-DSS)

The multiple functions of soil are indeed under an increasing threat from a wide range of human activities, which are damaging its long-term availability and capability. These threats are often complex, typically inter-linked and they can occur simultaneously. In the EU Soil thematic strategy COM 2006/231, the following soil threats are considered of major concerns for implementing the Soil Thematic Strategy: erosion, decline in organic matter, soil sealing, soil compaction, decline in soil biodiversity, landslides, etc. In the test area all these soil threats occur.Objectives:The aim of this project is to develop, test and implement a tool to support the decisions of stakeholders on soil and landscape conservation issues. The Decision Supporting System is designed to enable the introduction of the best soil conservation and land management measures and will ease the implementation of important but complex environment-related EU directives, regulations and national allocation plans. The tool must include many different high quality layers of information in order to be successfully applied. It will be developed in the framework of a "Web-based Spatial Decision Supporting System" (WS-DSS) and will consider soil and landscape. The WS-DSS tool will, through a web server system, provide advice and enable users to produce detailed spatial documents, reports and maps on a series of issues such as agriculture, environment and climate change, with the ultimate goal of enabling an easy implementation and an innovative spatial based adoption of relevant EU and national legislation. WS-DSS will be adopted in a test area (and further expanded, after the project) by the agricultural division of the Region of Campania, an associate partner. Moreover, during the lifetime of the project, the tool will be provided for testing in four other European regions that have already expressed an interest. The tool will be made available to individuals, public bodies and other interested parties. It will integrate classical top-down decision-making with bottom-up contributions to landscape planning and management.Expected results: The development of a successful DSS for spatial decisions that can operate through the Web;The provision of concrete and practical results (answers / reports / maps) on a series of questions related to the implementation of important EU regulations and directives.