Our project

European Soil Erosion Monitoring and Modelling Network for Sustainable Agricultural Land Management

Project overview

The EUROSION project aims at creating a robust monitoring network to assess soil erosion status and trends across spatial and temporal scales and promote best management practices to agricultural land managers and decision-makers to reduce soil erosion.

Erosion is a major threat to the ecosystemic services provided by soils, especially for nutrient cycling, provision of food, water purification, leading to significant on- and off-side effects that need to be monitored, studied and prevented. To tackle these pressing challenges, the European Union launched on November 1st, 2025, EUROSION, a large-scale research and innovation project with a budget of €11.49 million, bringing together 24 partners from 13 countries, stretching from Tunisia to Norway and Cardiff to Turkey.

EUROSION aims to advance knowledge, develop innovative solutions, and support effective strategies to protect soils and sustain their vital functions for ecosystems and society.

By providing an integrated, harmonized, and dynamic understanding of soil erosion, EUROSION directly contributes to the European Soil Strategy and the European Green Deal/change to CAP? The project also aligns with EU goals for sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, supporting evidence-based decision-making for soil protection across the continent.

The project’s framework

EUROSION aims to establish the first pan-European dynamic soil erosion monitoring network. The project relies on 12 monitoring nodes, acting as open-air laboratories, covering the main erosion processes: water erosion, tillage erosion and wind erosion.

Our 5 Objectives

Develop a multi-scale Monitoring Network
Enhance, calibrate, and validate existing process-based erosion models
Develop a platform to facilitate the collaboration between monitoring stakeholders
Provide farmers with recommendations on best practices for reducing soil erosion
Providing policymakers with recommendations enhancing the adoption of practices reducing soil erosion

Work packages scheme

The Work Plan is organised along 8 Work Packages (WP) spanning 60 months of project in total, from November 2025 to November 2030.

WP1	WP Leader /Task Leader
Setting the scene for a dynamic soil erosion monitoring system	NIBIO
T1.1 - Identifying existing monitoring networks and data sources on soil erosion	NIBIO
T1.2 - Identification and evaluation of monitoring methods for assessing soil loss by water and wind erosion	BFH
T1.3 - Review of policy framework and inventory of management practices reducing soil erosion	CYI
T1.4 - Analysis of current knowledge on soil erosion monitoring and mitigation measures	NIBIO

WP2	WP Leader /Task Leader
Creating a European Soil Erosion Monitoring Network	UoG
T2.1 - Requirements of monitoring stakeholders for an EU soil erosion monitoring network	UoG
T2.2 - Co-designing a citizen-led science approach to support the EU soil erosion monitoring network	UoG
T2.3 - Co-creation of the European Soil Erosion Monitoring Network	UoG
T2.4 - Evaluating the European Soil Erosion Monitoring Network	UoG

WP3	WP Leader /Task Leader
Developing a EU monitoring scheme to harmonize soil erosion monitoring	BFH
T3.1 - Development of a Soil Erosion Monitoring Scheme at local and regional scales	BFH
T3.2 - Data collection in Monitoring Nodes and across the EU	BFH
T3.3 - Analysing collected monitoring data and soil erosion indicators	BFH

WP4

Design and development of multi-scale process-based soil erosion models

T4.1 - Design and develop process-based soil erosion models

T4.2 - Establish data requirements for process-based models and develop universally applicable input parameters

T4.3 - Sensitivity analysis, calibration and validation of soil erosion models

T4.4 - Co-develop scenarios with stakeholders to identify land management practices that tackle soil erosion

WP5	WP Leader /Task Leader
Exploring land management and policy dimensions for reducing soil erosion	IEEP
T5.1 - Socio-economic assessment of management practices to reduce soil erosion	HFFA
T5.2 - Recommendations for farmers and agricultural advisors	UoG
T5.3 - Review and analysis of the policy framework and the effectiveness of policy interventions	IEEP
T5.4 - Recommendations for policy design and performance monitoring	IEEP

WP6	WP Leader /Task Leader
Developing a European Dynamic Soil Erosion Monitoring Platform	VARDA
T6.1 - Integration and enhancement of agricultural land boundaries data in Europe	VARDA
T6.2 - Designing the system architecture and early prototype	VARDA
T6.3 - Automatize Data Ingestion	VARDA
T6.4 - Development of the European Dynamic Soil Erosion Monitoring Platform	VARDA
T6.5 - Official launch and user onboarding for the European Dynamic Soil Erosion Monitoring Platform	VARDA

WP7	WP Leader /Task Leader
Project coordination and ethics	WU
T7.1 - Management and coordination tools	EQY
T7.2 - Day-to-day management	WU
T7.3 - Ethic requirement, risk management and quality assurance	WU
T7.4 - Data management	VARDA

WP8	WP Leader /Task Leader
Communication, Dissemination & Exploitation	EQY
T8.1 - Plan for dissemination and exploitation including communication activities	EQY
T8.2 - Communication activities	EQY
T8.3 - Dissemination activities	EQY
T8.4 - Collaboration with sister projects and other projects	UNIPD
T8.5 - Exploitation activities	EQY