The ETC project covers the period from November 2010 to October 2013.

Soil is the starting point for all life on Earth, and it provides for more than 90% of our food. It is threatened in various ways: Building blocks and excessive exploitation in favorable conditions, neglect and give-up in unfavorable conditions. A general awareness of the population seems to get lost and does no longer correspond to reality, respectively. Soils are living systems, which can only perform their functions within the ecosystem and for man, if their qualities are largely intact. A sustainable cultivation of land in the Danube region can decisively contribute to soil fertility, preventive flood protection, and to the use of soils as carbon storage tanks – and thus to climate protection.

It is the aim of the SONDAR SK-AT project to create a network of increasing responsibility for soil – between science and practice, between administration and users of land, between education, arts, and the entire population. It is a  matter of implementing measures and describing processes, which subsequently are able to develop further in other regions and countries. The effect of the project examples shall become relevant to the entire Danube region.

Soil protection:
• Quality & space
• Soil awareness
• Soil & water interaction

In close cooperation between Slovak and Lower Austrian partners, best-practice examples of a sensible use of soil in the respective municipality are selected and documented.