The LIFE+SOILCONSWEB project: A web based spatial decision support system embedding DSM engines

This contribution aims to refer first results obtained by the SOILCONSWEB (EU LIFE?) project which deals with a web based spatial decision support system embedding digital soil mapping engines. The aim of the project is to develop, to test and to apply a tool to support (stakeholders) decisions on landscape issues aiming at both the best soil conservation/land management and an easy landscape implementation of some important but complex environmental EU directives and regulations. In fact, often environmental directives/regulations (such as those by EU) have an intrinsic complexity because they apply to soils and landscapes which have the well recognized "multiple functions" as a fundamental feature. Then it is not surprising that this decision support system requires to include and to mix many different high quality information, engines and processing units in order to be successfully applied. Moreover the tool will also integrate the classical top-down decisions with the bottom-up contributions towards a sustainable landscape planning and managing. In this paper we employed Digital Soil Mapping procedures to obtain the spatial distribution of soil features/functions but also to incorporate any new (certified) analysis performed and uploaded by farmers. The SOILCONSWEB will automatically include new records by updating spatial models. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group.