1. News from Switzerland on Soil Monitoring & Data Management
Soil Section
News from Switzerland on Soil Monitoring & Data Management
Fabio Wegmann September 18, 2007

2. Agenda Brief introduction of myself
National Soil Observation Network (NABO)
National Soil Pollutants Database (NABODAT)

3. Short Introduction of myself
Ph.D. in chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
On modeling of transport, behaviour and fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
I joined the soil section at the Federal Office for the Environment at the end of 2006
Main topics
NABODAT
EEA activities
Chemical aspects of soil protection
My coworkers send greetings!

4. National Soil Observation (NABO)
In operation since 1984
105 locations, different land usage
Monitoring of:
Nutrients: N, P, ... (soil fertility)
Soil parameters: pH, OC, physical & biological parameters
Pollutants: Pb, Cd, Cu, Ni, Cr, Co, F, Hg, Zn, PAH, PCB, ...
Some sites are sampled each year, but most are every 5th year
4th complete sampling and analysis campaign completed soon
48 locations with additional mass flux monitoring
Quality management: i.e. with round robin tests, systematic error analysis
Not included here: cantonal soil observation

5. Swiss Soil Monitoring Network
- NABO-Trend: at present 105 long-term observation sites of different land use: Start of implementation 1985, sampling intervall 5 years (4th campaign), analytical programme 9 heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cr, Mo, Co, Hg) and F.
- NABO-Flux: 48 agricultural sites with annual fluxes of deposition, agricultural inputs and crop uptake for Cd, Cu, Zn and Pb.
- NABO-Status: 105 sites over Switzerland are not sufficient, additional investigations in course.
- NABO-Quality: key issue for monitoring as we shall see.
status soil properties: depth profile, pH, CEC, ...
chemical change: 8 heavy metals and F
chemical status: PAH, PCB, Dioxine
biological and physical properties: field experiments to evaluate methods

6. since 1996: cattle-manure, poultry and pig manure
56 Trueb (Kt. Bern)
arable
mixed dairy farm
since 1996: cattle-manure, poultry and pig manure

7. 64 Duggingen
orchads (cherry)
mixed dairy / arable farm
since 1996: cattle and pig manure, pesticides, gras cutting,

8. Sampling design soil depth: 0-20 cm 51 Wartau special crops:
vegetables

9. More Information & Contact
Homepage

10. NABODAT: Goals To harmonize soil pollutant data storage in Switzerland
To consolidate all soil pollutant information sources in Switzerland
To serve as a tool to analyse and assess spatial and temporal trends on different levels
To facilitate overall soil status reports (i.e. to EEA)
To be the soil element of the Swiss Environmental Data Centre
Parcel
Canton / Region
‚Catchment‘
Municipal Comm.
National

11. NABODAT: Structure & Milestones
National Soil Pollutants Database
Is based on a ‘field-tested’ cantonal solution
Has multi-client functionality:
Closed data domains
Different user types (FABO, nonFABO, .edu,...)
Connection to GIS software
Seperate development of ‘R modules’ to facilitate spatial assessments based on point data
Begin development: early 2008
(Scheduled) begin of productive stage: early 2009

12. NABODAT: Data types & functionality

13. regional background concentrations of heavy metals in the top soil
Digital soil mapping:
regional background concentrations of heavy metals in the top soil
Voraussetzungen in der Schweiz gut durch hohen Harmonisierungsgrad der Daten, das Mittelland ist ein mittelfristig realistisches Ziel