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Project

Support for the further development of a Flemish GIS layer of soil carbon stock

At the request of the Vlaamse Planbureau voor Omgeving (VPO) of the Department Omgeving, INBO drew up an area-wide map of the carbon (C-) stock in the soil in Flanders. The VPO department provided this map to the FAO Global Soil Partnership (GSP), which is working on the creation of a Global Soil Organic Carbon map (GSOC) 2017. For forests, stocks were estimated on the basis of measurement data collected during the period 1997-2002. For the agricultural area, sufficient data were not available to arrive directly at an area-wide estimate, and a statistical model was drawn up on the basis of measurement data from various fragmented surveys from Flanders and Wallonia (Meersmans, 2008, 2011). Based on this model, it was possible to estimate the C stock of agricultural land in Flanders. The GSOC map synthesizes current knowledge about the extent of carbon stocks in soil and also provides an estimate of the uncertainties. The aim is to validate this map in the future on the basis of new measurements, to further refine it and thus increase the reliability of the results.
Date:18 Dec 2017 →  31 Dec 2019