The SIEUSOIL research project, which aims to develop sustainable and holistic land management practices based on a harmonized land information system, is meeting its goals, the consortium behind the project said.

In close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), SIEUSOIL has laid the foundations for the Global Soil Information System (GloSIS).

The system is reportedly suitable for various climatic and operating conditions in various locations in the EU and China.

The research platform consists of advanced crop and soil sensing tools, data modeling and fusion, digital soil mapping and farm management information systems, which will be developed to maximize land productivity and socio-economic benefits, while that minimize environmental impacts.

SIEUSOIL is collaborating closely with the Joint Research Center (JRC) to assess the accuracy of the land-related data sets, while a land use policy document related to these findings will be published.

“The scope was to develop a methodology for the Land Suitability Analysis (LSA) based on several indicators that describe the current and future conditions of an area, together with other factors that express the health of the soil, the growth of crops and socioeconomic status,” said SIEUSOIL. “So far, the results have shown that the method is capable of producing LSA maps. The LSA procedure succeeded in producing maps of pilot areas that are easy to use, since they provide spatial information on the suitability yield per crop, both in percentage value and in suitability class according to the FAO”.

SIEUSOIL is coordinated by Professor Dimitrios Moshou of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and is made up of a consortium of 23 partners, 16 based in Europe and seven in China.