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It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the first ARAGORN newsletter! At this time in Europe, momentum towards securing healthy soils and biodiversity is very high...
In ARAGORN we want to enable land-managers to reclaim land lost to pollution, by developing tools and processes to support the remediation and restoration of lands contaminated by groups of persistent chemicals (metals, petroleum/coal, PFAS, and organochlorine/bromine compounds (OCBs)). In doing so, we are faced with the high complexity of soils, across geological and time scales. Locally, there are always unique challenges relating to where contaminated soil connects with the terrestrial ecosystems, ground and surface water, and the human activities of food production, housing and industrial production. Adding to this complexity, we must be aware that not only pollution, but also resource depletion, biodiversity losses, climate change – and wars – threaten terrestrial ecosystems. Another aspect of the complexity comes from soil typically being a privately owned, and the management of it influenced by local traditions and restrained by finite economic resources. Any land management will therefore need to take these aspects of local stakeholders into account, if it is to work in practice.
In ARAGORN, we aim to facilitate land-manager decision making, by designing fit-for-purpose, scientific tools and processes that integrate the multidimensionality of environmental and human risks, socio-economics and environmental resilience. Of course, tools by themselves will not be sufficient without developing processes that are critical for identifying decisions that last. This is why we in ARAGORN have a strong focus on working with communities and various stakeholders in co-creation processes, at our sites across Europe.
During our project, ARAGORN will fully support the development of an EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law, to protect the soil health for our and for future generations. Setting binding local and European targets will be critical to operationalize the EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law to ensure healthy and resilient soils, as well as the protection of water. ARAGORN supports the view that mandatory limit values set for mixtures of contaminants should be introduced, as this will motivate the implementation and progress towards achieving such targets.
Xenia Trier (UCPH), coordinator of the project, states: "I am both excited and proud to present the latest activities led by the truly magnificent ARAGORN team! I hope it illustrates the various ways in which we piece by piece, and in cooperation with other EU projects, companies, national authorities and the Commission, will help to pave the road towards a strong EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law."
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