About Opportunity:

Soil, the natural medium for growth, development and reproduction of plants, comprises mineral and organic matter along with living organisms is of vital importance for global ecosystem. The need to develop a sustainable resource management tool that would facilitate strategic planning of decision makers in Europe became apparent.

Environmental justification for optimum planning and sustainable management of urban soil is a demanding task. A decision support system (DSS) for urban soil appraisal has been developed with potential for a broad range of applications. DDS involves a three-stage approach involving remote data input, data viewing and analysis and collaborative decision making/knowledge management is employed.

This unique tool sets a concrete foundation to an appropriate spatial decision support system on three coordinate axes: transparency, flexibility and inclusion. The innovative methodology that URBSOIL researchers applied has been a breakthrough in urban planning with a vast potential for further exploitation.