Open and scalable soil erosion assessments: insights from Use Case 5 of the EO4EU project
Soil erosion driven by water remains a major environmental and policy concern in Europe and the
world, with direct implications for land degradation, agricultural productivity, infrastructure, and
ecosystem services. In the European Union, soil erosion-related indicators are leveraged to track
progress towards policy goals. For instance, soil erosion by water can be adopted as a proxy for the
UN SDG 15.3.1 indicator, “Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area”. This usage
requires large-scale, frequent, and cross-comparable assessments of soil erosion, which, however,
are still limited by data availability and methodological consistency.
This contribution presents recent efforts from Use Case 5 (UC5) of the AI-augmented ecosystem for
Earth Observation data accessibility with Extended reality User Interfaces for Service and data
exploitation” (EO4EU) project, focused on building open, scalable tools for soil erosion estimation.
The approach is based on the empirical Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model,
enhanced through the integration of multi-source data, including Earth Observation products, and
supported by artificial intelligence.
Developed through a co-design process involving domain experts and end users, UC5 supports land
planning and policy implementation and reporting by providing timely, spatially explicit assessments of
erosion hazards. The methodological framework of UC5 is designed to be transparent, reproducible,
and adaptable across regions, while the remaining challenges in enhancing accessibility, validation,
and operational uptake will be discussed. The presentation will include examples from the EO4EU
pilot area, namely South Italy, and other sites from initiatives developed in synergy with EO4EU,
including the Horizon Research Innovation Action (RIA) “SDGs-EYES”, the Italian “IRIDE” initiative in
collaboration with ESA, and the “SEEDS” project funded by IFAB.
