1. LUCAS MULTITEMPORAL DATA
FOR THE EVALUATION OF SOIL DEGRADATION PROCESSES
Ciro Gardi
Ladies and gentelman good morning. I am Ciro Gardi, from JRC in Ispra and I will briefly present some technical aspects of Lucas Soil project and describe some of the added values of Lucas Soil to the European Soil Data Centre.

2. Threats to soil as identified in COM(2002) 179 :
Sealing
Erosion
Organic matter decline
Compaction
Salinisation
Landslides
Contamination
Decline in soil biodiversity

3. LAND COVER/LAND USE AND SOIL DEGRADATION
Change in Land Cover/Land Use, together with soil management practices, represent one of the major driver of soil degradation.
The possibility to use EU wide multi-temporal series of data on land cover/land use, combined with the use of ancillary data, can allow to detect areas subject to soil degradation processes.

4. DATA SETS FOR SOIL DEGRADATION DETECTION
SOIL THREATS
LUCAS
DEM *
AGRICULTURAL
SOIL
STATISTICS
Erosion a
Decline in organic matter
Soil contamination
Soil sealing
Soil compaction
Decline in soil biodiversity
Salinisation
Floods and landslides
* DEM: Digital Elevation Model

5. STRUCTURE OF LUCAS SOIL
EFFECTS ON ORGANIC MATTER DECLINE
Previous land cover
Actual land cover
Artificial and
Crop land
Woodland
Shrubland
Grassland
Bare land -
- - +
+++ =
++++ ++
- - -
+ : increasing intensity of the process (in this case increased soil organic matter dcline)
- : decreasing intensity of the process (in this case increased soil organic matter content)

6. STRUCTURE OF LUCAS SOIL
EFFECTS ON SOIL EROSION
Previous land cover
Actual land cover
Artificial and
Crop land
Woodland
Shrubland
Grassland
Bare land -
- - +
+++ ++
++++
- - -

7. SECOND AND THIRD LEVEL OF LAND COVER
The second and the third level of the actual nomenclature provide very detailed information (crop type, forest type, etc.) that can be used as proxy of the land management
The statistical analysis of time series and the spatial statistics on this data would help in the comprehension of major changes in the use and in management of the territory, especially in the rural area

8. CONCLUSION
The combined use of LUCAS data, including the Soil component, represent an interesting approach for the characterization of the status of soils and for the evaluation of potential risk of soil degradation.

9. Thank you for your attention!