SERENA Project: to define relevant change scenarios for evaluating the impact on soil-based ecosystem services in European agricultural landscapes

Abstract

SERENA Project aims to improve the effectiveness of European policies on the environment, and in particular on soil, through the analysis of soil-based ecosystem services and soil threats in some of European agricultural landscapes. The need for sustainable and effective agro-management methods, practices and techniques to contribute to the improvement of soil quality and to mitigate the effects of global change scenarios foresee has been widely recognized. In addition to the identification and evaluation of indicators for soil-based ecosystem services and soil threats, the project also foresees to define relevant scenarios based on the best available scientific knowledge, useful for evaluating the dynamics of a variety of land degradation impacts on ecosystem services. A specific study is devoted to the available knowledge on expected projections that main drivers, as climate change, demographic trends, changes in land use/land cover and land management could produce in agricultural soils. The first outcomes of the scenario analysis, and the resulting implications on soil health and on ecosystem services, will be then discussed with end-users to co-construct relevant scenarios to support planning and decision-making processes. This approach considers that the collaboration with end-users plays a key role to address the evaluation of impacts of soil related policies striving to achieve national and global environmental targets, including Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, involving broadly decision-makers and stakeholders, helping their effectiveness.