2012 Eurosoil Meeting at Bari

The SONDAR Soil Strategy Network in the Danube Region was represented at the 4th EUROSOIL meeting at Bari from July 2 to 6 by three representatives. This forum is held every four years, and 1,800 participants from all over the world took part. In more than 70 sessions, 660 lectures were held and more than 1,600 posters were presented, the various aspects of soil were discussed, and the focus and cooperation in soil research were agreed for the coming years.
The meeting contributed towards drawing the attention to the activities of SONDAR, especially to the role of soil as an indicator of potential flooding events. This was conveyed to the interested public in a lecture on a case study in the river catchment of the Morava river in the cross-border region of the municipalities of Angern on the Morava river in Lower Austria and Zahorska Ves in West Slovakia. Scientists from Slovakia and Austria are developing a method, which offers favorably with low effort protection against flooding in regions without any early warning system.
Furthermore, the representatives of SONDAR, Dir. Dr. Jaroslava Sobocka, Dr. Beata Houskova and Dr. Meinhard Breiling participated in workshops on soil policy or on the implementation of soil policy in administration. Soil awareness and projects for creating soil awareness increase in significance also in scientific meetings. For only by means of broad public support, soil research can be advanced.
On behalf of the EU and its department of land resource management, represented by Luca Montanella, gratitude was expressed publicly towards the SONDAR representatives for their commitment to the Danube region. Without SONDAR and its currently three ETC projects, there would be no soil-relevant projects concerning focus 6 (biodiversity, landscape, air, soil) of the Strategy for the Danube Region. The Danube region is a European macro-region of the EU, in which socio-economic differences are especially noticeable, and where a variety of quite different soil problems occurs. Urban growth leads to sealing of especially the best soils, while many soils in rural regions are no longer cultivated and given up. SONDAR intends to impede these trends through well-targeted raising of awareness.
For further information on this project, please refer to www.sondar.eu

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