Soil and Land Use in the Alps--Challenges and Examples of Soil-Survey and Soil-Data Use to Support Sustainable Development

The present chapter broaches the issue of soil and land use in the Alps, focusing on their diversity and the related consequences for soil mapping, modeling, and managing. In recent decades the Alps as well as other mountain regions have been faced with both land-use and climate changes that significantly affect soils. Therefore soil protection and management strategies are in demand. Nevertheless, a s0010 p0010 precondition for this is that soil information is available and features both an adequate scale as well as an applicable form. As this is not the case in many regions in the Alps, we first of all aim at providing insight into land-use-related soil issues. Second, we discuss which soil data are necessary to satisfy soil management requirements and how to obtain the relevant information in the Alps by mapping, measuring, and modeling soils and their properties.