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This page is no longer updated. The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute joined forces with SCRI joined forces on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute. Please visit the James Hutton Institute website.

Friday 29th March 2024

Risk Matrix

Why?

Identifying soils that may be ‘at risk’ from different drivers and pressures is important for streamlining of future monitoring and regulatory efforts.

Development of a soils risk matrix requires:

  • Better information on how different soils may respond to different pressures
  • Data indicating whether key measurements made in soils have changed over time, and how quickly they have changed.
  • Improved quantification of uncertainties in soils data

The draft EU Soils Framework Directive requires member states to identify areas at risk from a number of pressures that may erode soil resources, and to manage these risks in order to reduce impacts. The development of risk-based methodologies and mapping techniques will enable a targeted approach to future monitoring and management.

Outcomes

  • Soil/land use matrix for Scotland determining the functions performed by soils.
  • Identification and prediction of the threats, pressures and risks to soils under different land uses.
  • Linkage of pressures back to soil functions, processes and properties.
  • Tools for policy makers such as risk maps.

Contacts

Mr. Willie Towers, Macaulay Institute.

Protecting the nations soils pic