Project
Summary:
Development and revision of existing technical approaches and methodologies in the field of contamination of groundwater and soil will be one of their major
tasks oftne national environmental protection agencies within the next few years. This isdue to the implementation of various European policies as the Water
frameworkDirective, a proposal of Directive on Environmental Liability and theCommunication on Soil Protection. With a series of 3 workshops and a finalconference
JOINT will prepare the ground for this duties on technical basis.Representatives of numerous national, regional and municipal agencies,researchers, contractors
and urban planners/developers will contribute to theseevents, concluding in a comprehensive technical approach.
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Achieved Objectives:
International interest in research, policy and practice related to sustainable management of the soil and water system is increasing, especially due to the
implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the development of an EU Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection1. JOINT (Joint Technical Approach for Soil
and Groundwater Qual-ity Management) contributed to these European developments with the organisation of 3 workshops dedicated to the JOINT objectives:
• Diffusion of current R&D results and connecting existing technical approaches,
• Stimulation of co-operation for applied research,
• Support of the development of upcoming soil policy.
The first workshop held in November 2003 in Orléans, France, focussed on present-ing the progress of soil and groundwater related EU research projects to
end-users, service providers, regulators and scientists with the aim of finding solutions on 'how to bring results of EU research quicker and closer to the
end-users'. To improve communication, dissemination and bringing the research closer to the market/users the JOINT team contributed to the technical digests
of EUGRIS.
One explicit aim of the second workshop held in June 2004 in Bonn, Germany, was to inform about activities in the field related to funding opportunities, to
illustrate the prioritary topics to be covered by future research activities and to facilitate a discus-sion to be used for partner search to allocate powerful
consortia.
The third workshop in October 2004 in Vienna, Austria, was organised together with the Thematic Network SCAPE (Soil Conservation and Protection for Europe)
to analyse and disseminate the recommendations that have been made by the Technical Working Group Research of the EU Thematic Strategy in order to group the
most important, urgent and cost-effective soil research issues as 'priority research areas'. A brochure introducing this research agenda for soil protection
in Europe was pre-pared and presented at the Vital Soil EU policy conference in The Hague (November 2004).
The research agenda for soil protection in Europe describes general research needs for all soil threats, based on a DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, State,
Impacts and Responses) approach. The present publication by JOINT gives more specific recommendations for risk based management of contaminations in the
soil system, aimed at integrating the management of the soil and groundwater resources. It is fo-cusing on the research needs for the design of adequate resource
management responses in the light of changes in land use and climate changes in the European Union.
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Prof Paul Bardos