A soil-water research agenda and network opportunities within Europe

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A soil-water research agenda and network opportunities within Europe

At Thursday 18 april the Dutch Soil Platform organized a special session at AquaConsoil. With chairman Paul Nathanail (University of Nottingham) and an inspiring presentation of Mark Kibblewhite (University of Cranfield) and more than 80 attendees from 15 countries, the special session was a success.

Goal of the session

The goal of this session was to identify the current and future (national) research priorities for soil and groundwater research in the different European regions. With the attendees, the similarities and differences were discussed and connections with the challenges of Horizon2020 were sought. The second objective of the session was to contribute to (or to enable) the formation or

strengthening of transnational networks on similar themes and to anticipate on possible cooperation within consortia for Horizon2020.

Horizon2020

A proposal for the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon2020 has been prepared starting in 2014. Horizon 2020 is the Common Strategic Framework of the EU for Research & Innovation (2014–20). The European Commission calls for more investments on:

Food security, Bio-Economy and Sustainable Agriculture (Bio-Based Economy) More attention for research on Soil conservation, Soil fertility, Soil biodiversity, Soil carbon sink & C mitigation potential, Wise Land Use

More support to promote Research Networking and Transnational Cooperation in Europe, through ERA-Nets, Joint Programming Initiatives, European Innovation Partnerships, Joint Technology Initiatives

In the special session the Horizon2020 program was presented by Mark Kibblewhite: “Rising to

the challenges of the 21st century: soil and water research in Horizon 2020”..

Soil and water are not specifically addressed in Horizon2020, we have to make the soil and groundwater system relevant, it is a cross cutting theme. Priorities in horizon are excellent science, industrial leadership and social challenges. Mark gives some of his ideas for research: Measuring and modeling uncertainty in bulk properties of the soil water system; understanding soil biota and root structure; thermodynamics and kinetics of the soil system. He also zoomed in on urban and agricultural land. In the end Mark presented the actions the attendees have to take to get the soil water system in the Horizon2020 program: make formal concept papers, share concepts, share ideas, seek connections with SME’s and industrial partners, get an early sight of the working program and get ready for 2014! (for more information, see presentation of Mark Kibblewhite).

Wordle of the text about societal issues from horizon2020. The larger the words, the more frequent in the text

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Most countries have their research agendas. With the attendants from North, South, West and East Europe, the attendees identified the subjects that have a high research priority. Chair Paul Nathanail extracted the top 4 of research topics from the discussions. In a second round, those were discussed. Underneath a report of the results of this session .

The research priorities in North, East, South and West Europe

What are important societal issues (for you / your country / your region) What are research priorities (for you / your country / your region) Where are you involved / doing research?

Where are the gaps? NORTH:

Chaired by Yvonne Andersson-Sköld (University of Gotenborg) and reported by Piet Otte (RIVM) A quick round of introductions revealed that the participants are involved in a wide range of activities covering several expertises. Participants are presently involved in subjects as soil/biogas, soil-water quality management, soil contamination and waste management, brownfield, soil sealing and drinking water amongst others.

The lively discussion yielded in several ideas and recommendations: A better integration of soil and water management

Attention to a circular approach and bio-based economy and the role of soil water expertise and policy.

EAST

Chaired by Greg Malina (AGH University of Krakow) and reported by Linda Maring (Deltares) The group started with an inventory of themes that drive research questions for the soil water system:

Economic prosperity - Regional jobs Water use

o Role of travel and holidays >> resource use; think globally holiday locally Sustainable energy supply, is scale gas sustainable?

Sustainable agriculture, there are too many eu subsidies

o How to realize more sustainable agriculture? We are ‘Mining’ soils on global scale. This is also an economic issue.

Green cities – health Groundwater resources

o groundwater quality, contamination, and also in relation to shale gas attention for research on sediments (problems and opportunities)

Important addition to the discussions is that scale matters for research questions– eg river basins; local food production; soil associations. We have to search for common grounds between

countries, regions to perform the research.

The topics of the EU Soil strategy are still valid. The research priorities on the soil-groundwater system should get a visible place in the horizon2020 agenda. Important is that we should not only look at threats for the soil groundwater system, but also to opportunities the system gives.

SOUTH

Chaired by Sara Picone (ASTER) and reported by Sandra Boekhold (TCB) Need to have such discussions; takes time

Societal issues: food safety, security and health in relation to soil and water quality Public communication about why soil matters to their lives

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Medicines/ pharmaceuticals in water

Brownfields – there’s more of them now! Spreading issue/ opportunity

Cleaner industries – DON’T close them down – we need the jobs etc. (role of IED?) City sprawl onto agricultural land – soil sealing

Increased city self sufficiency with regard to food Growing demand for water

Competition between industry and population for water causes risk of relocation of industry and further economic decline

Contamination flux vs concentration, related to large contaminated sites

WEST

Chaired by Hilde Passier (Deltares) and reported by Ton Breure (RIVM)

Problems and societal issues that drive research priorities that were discussed were the economic situation / unemployment and short term thinking and the need for a healthy and safe environment. The competition between different soil users energy / water / soil is an important aspect. There is a low awareness of impact of human behaviour on soil quality / soil is not a societal issue.

The identified research topics were:

Combined land use multiple uses of land Ecological cycles

Nutrient supply for energy crops Emerging contaminants

Development for decision making on sustainability choices Role of land grabbing / land grabbing for urban development Energy resources / shale gas production

Urban agriculture, Food safety / local food production Availability of drinking water / irrigation

Recource scarcity / use of water Salination of ground water

CCS storage of compounds / technical application of space of the sub-surface Sea level rise / flooding, Climate change / rain in cities, Hazards after perfect storm The group also discussed the necessity of the link between disciplines (alpha beta gamma = social, natural economic science;) and cooperation between sectors in research. Research facilities in the field for research at different scales (“play garden”) are necessary for innovation and application.

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From the discussion, four priority themes emerged: Water & food

Urban land Green industry

Energy and other (minerals, REE, …) resources The next questions were asked to the attendees: -What research questions do you have?

Societal issues and solutions from soil water system? -Connect demand and supply

Who is problem owner?

Who can develop the knowledge? -Which actions can be defined?

Together

Towards EU / Horizon2020 Towards JPI, JRI and the EIPs

Towards national / regional governments Towards other parties (industry, research, etc) WATER AND FOOD

Chaired by Greg Malina (AGH University of Krakow) and reported by Linda Maring (Deltares) One of the group members started the discussion with the remark that –for food- we use 3000 liters per person per day. Important research questions are:

Efficiency of water use: how to improve the efficiency of water use? Two strategies:

More crop per drop: achieve more productivity per unit of land. We can choose a kind of crops related to water availability and consumption

What technologies are available to increase production? (eg sensors, smart irrigation and drainage)

The use of non conventional water sources (waste water)– This needs policy: We know a lot about how to do things (eg treated waste water) – but we have to overcome communication and legislation issues to do this

Soil management. We have to manage soil structure and do research how to do this effectively Underemployed soil – marginal land, contamination; open land to be put to better use

Drought events or water excess are both drivers for research. GREEN INDUSTRY

Chaired by Yvonne Andersson-Sköld (University of Gotenborg) and reported by Piet Otte (RIVM) A short discussion about the so-called ‘industrial symbiosis’ took place. Opinions about possible benefits and risks and the role of the soil-water system were shared.

Mentioned important drivers for knowledge and policy development were scarcity of resources, waste production and re-use.

Mentioned challenges; The need for mainstreaming guidelines and the importance to work towards further integration of soil and water policy into other policy areas such as energy. An overall need for a further symbiosis at different scales and levels was underlined by several participants.

The creation of a level playing field for the different stakeholders was found important.

An interesting idea was the creation of the so-called ‘perfect home’. The ‘perfect home’ can solve the current ‘radon’ problem and contribute to a climate proof and healthy environment. To realize this, soil and water expertise, next to others, is badly needed.

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At the beginning of the discussion several participants say that is difficult to find a place for their expertise in the European Horizon2020 programme. At the end of the session, participants said to find some new clues and maybe new contacts to share experiences and ideas for this.

URBAN LAND

Chaired by Hilde Passier (Deltares) and reported by Ton Breure (RIVM)

To give soil the chance to play its role in the development of healthy cities the following problems have to be solved:

Soil might be able to help mitigate climate stress by keeping up green areas, without grabbing land from the surroundings: compact cities with high buildings (London, Nantes).

Optimization of water management by updating the water system and improve the groundwater models taking into account piping and natural water infiltration.

Multifunctionality of the soil / water system:

Updated water systems (interacting urban karst and soil waters) Water quality

food production (urban agriculture), mitigation of heat stress,

management of brownfields (resilience of soil), use of soil energy

Other problems:

Identification of problem owners is hard, so identify the beneficiaries. Links: urban-rural; fluxes in/out city – eg via rivers, motorways, air. Slow compartment and many of us have short timeframes.

Sectoral approaches in cities – poor communication, poor compromise and lack of agreement. ENERGY AND RESOURCES

Chaired by Sara Picone (ASTER) and reported by Sandra Boekhold (TCB)

In this round, the following topics were identified as research topics for the theme energy and resources

Interactions between water, nutrient, energy cycles Urea – N – water problems due to livestock farming

Impacts of energy production on soil (shale gas or geothermal activities on soil quality and soil/water systems)

(Re)quantify the potential of subsurface minerals – high current need Reuse of waste materials – animal, industrial, mining

Landfill mining

Resource security – sustainable use of eg drinking water

Point of attention is the scale of tackling a problem. Do we need tomatoes from Kenya or grown locally?

Actions NOW, the EuroGeoSurveys are already acting. Also the young professionals should act – it’s their future!

Wrapping up

Chair Paul Nathanail thanked all the attendees and closed the session. It is now important we keep in touch and take actions towards the Horizon2020 program to get the research topics on the agenda.