• Environment
• Economics

Soil function supply maps

Soils supply simultaneously a range of functions, such as food production or flood production, which are critical to our well-being. Mapping this supply across the EU can inform policy on the current delivery of these soil functions (SF) and their spatial variation at European and member state levels. To create these SF maps, several Bayesian networks (BNs) are developed that will allow us to map a wide range of SF indicators under different land uses. These BNs make use of probability distributions to incorporate uncertainty in a convenient and coherent way and allow us to integrate the inherent complexity of SF supply into the mapping process. Different BNs are developed and validated for croplands and grasslands, organic soils as well as managed forests. Both results from geophysical models as well as other information sources, such as EU reports, are used to develop these BNs and integrate as much information as possible. The development of these networks has proven to be challenging. Spatial information available at a EU level was used to run the BNs and to estimate the probability of getting a certain SF supply under specific crops, soil and environmental conditions as well as management practices. From these results both probability maps as well as averaged value maps have been produced for the different soil function indicators. These maps illustrate the spatial variation in SF supply across the EU.