Work package 3

 The RAMs in the database developed in WP1 are analysed using the criteria of WP 3.2.

Leader

 CNRS

Participants

 All

Start date

 Nov '07

End Date

 May '08

Objectives

Description of work

Harmonisation of risk assessments methodologies can have various advantages, viz.:

• Uniform risk assessment methodologies pave the way for uniform assessment and integration of soil threats in EU Member States, while possible trade-offs of risks may be prevented.
• Identification of possible ‘new’ areas at risk; by implementing uniform methodologies to all Member States, possible soil threats not yet encountered in some Member States can be identified.
• Measures to prevent soil degradation and to restore degraded soils can be evaluated similarly and hence harmonisation allows for comparison and up-scaling of results.

It should be recognized, however, that there is a huge diversity in existence and levels of soil threats in EU-25 that  relate to specific soil conditions, farming practices and climatic conditions. Further, soil protection and soil protection policy is still in its infancy in many Member States, and ‘dictating’ uniform methodologies may be counteractive. The RAMSOIL project will critically assess the possibilities for harmonization and will provide scientific support in exploring which models, parameters and input data could and should be harmonised among the member states, and report our findings in a systematic overview. Evidently, this harmonization highly depends on the objectives and wishes of the Commission and of future users, and we are keen to include the wishes and ideas of the Commission and other stakeholder in suggestions for harmonization, which can be exchanged during the meetings. Actions in this WP are:
Development of harmonization criteria. 
 The criteria used are:

• Applicability in different member states and applicability across member states
• Ambiguity in output
• Reliability of input parameters and ease of parameter estimation
• Specificity and consistency
• Robustness
• Possibility of matching of approach to other soil threats

Criteria assessment of RAMs in database. Parameters are divided in categories representing parameters that:

• can be harmonised and should be harmonised (profit of harmonization can be identified)
• can be harmonised but should not be harmonised (harmonisation may have disadvantage)
• can not be harmonised but should be harmonised (harmonisation need development)
• can not be harmonised and should not be harmonised (harmonisation not relevant)