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GENERAL OVERVIEW
The International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) celebrates its centennial this year. The celebration takes place in Florence on May 19th, followed by two days of congress, with plenary and parallel scientific sessions. During the congress, the SOILS4MED project will co-host a lunch symposium together with the SHARInG-Med project. These two projects were funded in 2023 under the PRIMA Program and are closely collaborating with each other, in synergy with other national and international initiatives to promote soil health in the Mediterranean area.
The symposium’s objective is “Land and soil management to improve soil health in the Mediterranean area”. In the region, there is an urgent need to develop harmonized methodologies, integrated indicator sets adapted to the Mediterranean soils, and systems enabling assessment and monitoring of soil health. The quality and availability of soil data and information need to be enhanced to allow sustainable management and protection of the Mediterranean soils. To achieve this, however, scientific challenges, institutional barriers, and societal awareness need to be addressed.
The lunch symposium takes place on May 21st, from 13:00 to 14:00, in Room 5 of the Palazzo dei Congressi. The agenda is as follows:
- 13:00 | The SOILS4MED Project – Claudio Zucca (Project Coordinator, University of Sassari, Italy)
- 13:10 | The SHARInG-MeD Project – Sergio Saia (Project Coordinator, University of Pisa, Italy)
- 13:20 | EU Soil observatory and its focus on Mediterranean soils – Calogero Schillaci (EC JRC, Italy)
- 13:30 | The Global Soil Partnership perspective of Mediterranean region – Maria Konyushkova, FAO-GSP
- 13:40 | Round table – Moderator: Pandi Zdruli (CIHEAM Bari, Italy). Panelists: Maria Fantappié (EJP Soil Programme); Selim Kapur (Çukurova University); Maria Konyushkova (FAO-GSP); Calogero Schillaci (JRC); Sergio Saia; Claudio Zucca