Towards harmonised urban soil analyses
Until recently most management activities concerning soil resources have potentially concentrated on remediation of contamination hot spots that have been identified through risk assessment. Yet, the importance of urban soil quality for human ecosystem requires a more harmonised monitoring approach and evaluation strategy on which the URBSOIL multidisciplinary consortium focused. The key objective was to specify suitable soil quality parameters and indices and use them in urban environments in order to obtain a comprehensive database. The compiled dataset includes environmental and socio-economical data as well as general soil description parameters and measures of diverse pollutants, both organic and inorganic. The environmental soil quality data along with the recommended methodologies can enable authorities in setting future monitoring strategies, environmental thresholds or remediation purposes. Moreover, a decision support tool for evaluation of soil quality is expected to provide local, national and European authorities with great assistance in sustainable planning and management of soil resource. Most interestingly, project researchers highlighted the availability of plenty of datasets related to soil quality; however, they may follow different methodologies. Even if the same methodology is followed not all specialised soil science laboratories may have detailed knowledge about its role and implementation. Motivated by this, researchers stressed the need for harmonisation and inclusion of suitable quality assurance measures as a pre-requisite for future collaborative studies on urban soils in Europe. Some of recommended actions include review of current practices and methodology against international standards, adoption of ISO methods, and inter-laboratory tests for comparisons. Appointing a quality manager experienced in analytical science to keep an eye on implementation of the quality assurance plan would also be helpful to ensure prime data for soil quality.
