BENCHMARKS is a Horizon Europe funded project, that aims to develop a transparent, harmonised, and cost-effective integrated soil health monitoring framework ISHMF for measuring soil health across Europe. The resulting ISHMF will be co-developed by the project team and stakeholders engaged within the 24 European local and landscape case studies covering multiple land-use types: agriculture, forestry and urban. Throughout the project, BENCHMARKS will support the Joint Research Centre JRC in development of a Soil Health Dashboard SHD. The ISHMF will serve as basis for the SHD, which provides assessment, evaluation, and support for land managers and other BENCHMARKS stakeholders at various scales. Working with a range of stakeholders BENCHMARKS will define a monitoring system that is pertinent to the objective of assessment, applicable to the land use, and logistically feasible.
BENCHMARKS collaborates with stakeholders in 24 European case studies to co-develop and evaluate a multi-scale and multi-user focused monitoring framework that is transparent, harmonised and cost-effective. Underpinned by the best scientific knowledge and technologies this framework aims to provide a clear soil health index for benchmarking, using indicators that are pertinent to the objective of assessment, applicable to the land use and logistically feasible.
Mostly we will follow the topsoil LUCAS Surrey: Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey