Development of soil research supporting climate resilience and decision-making in Finland

The development of the balance of carbon stocks is at the EU level as well as nationally a key issue related to climate change and the state of the environment, and nowadays it is also strongly linked to the economic perspective through common agreements related to taxonomy. This places the need to produce new researched information as a basis for decision-making.

In Finland, the lack of soil information is becoming a limitation of climate-resilient agriculture and forestry policy measures. Because of this, Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and its partners have launched several projects to improve the situation. In the new projects, remote sensing methods, digital tools and the use of artificial intelligence have been developed in particular to expand the regional coverage of soil data and to enable the assessment of the national carbon stock. By developing the production of information and making the use of databases more efficient, land use measures can be directed and targeted in such a way that they maintain and strengthen carbon sinks and stores.

GTK's partners in the projects have been the Natural Resources Institute Finland, the Universities of Helsinki and Turku, the Finnish Food Authority, the National Land Survey of Finland and RADAI, and the work would not be possible without interdisciplinary cooperation.