Soil Health Data Cube: the AI revolution to understand and protect Europe’s soil

The NEIKER technology centre is participating in the European AI4SoilHealth project, developing a digital system to predict soil evolution

The tool combines artificial intelligence and soil indicators to understand how each type of soil works and how it responds to different factors

The initiative seeks to support the European Union’s Soil and Food Health Mission in achieving the objectives set out in the EU Soil Protection Strategy for 2030

Over 60% of soils in Europe show signs of degradation, compromising not only their fertility but also their biodiversity and their capacity to store carbon. Against this backdrop, advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are making it possible to analyse soil evolution over time, understand its condition and accurately predict its response to scenarios such as climate change.

In this way, the NEIKER tech centre, which is part of the Basque Government’s Department of Food, Rural Development, Agriculture, and Fisheries, is taking part in the European AI4SoilHealth project, part of the Horizons Europe programme, which aims to improve soil health monitoring in Europe using advanced digital tools.

The goal is to develop a decision-making support system that allows for accurate, continuous assessment of soil condition at different territorial scales, integrating data from multiple sources and facilitating its use by farmers, land managers, and policymakers.

Soil Health Data Cube

The technological basis of the system revolves around an innovative analysis tool known as Soil Health Data Cube, a digital infrastructure that organises and cross-references millions of records on soil status in Europe, from climatic variables to physical-chemical indicators such as pH or carbon content. These data will enable the construction of a series of indices with which to assess soil health in a wide variety of environments.

Using advanced AI techniques, the system allows multiple factors to be analysed simultaneously, detecting relationships between variables and predicting soil properties at a resolution of 30 metres and every three years for the whole of Europe. ‘This represents a quantitative leap forward compared to previous tools, as it allows the evolution of soils to be visualised in a dynamic and personalised way, adapting to the user’s needs,’ explains Lur Epelde, a researcher in the Natural Resource Conservation Department at NEIKER.

As the only Spanish partner in the consortium, NEIKER contributes national-level data to the system and leads one of the project’s most innovative contributions: the potential incorporation of biological indicators in soil analysis to understand its ecological functioning and its capacity to maintain the services it provides to ecosystems and agriculture.

Practical applications and field validation

NEIKER also participates in the validation of new technologies to assess soil health in a more agile and accessible way without the need to go through the laboratory.

These solutions are being tested in pilot cases focused on practices such as rotational grazing with the aim of optimising soil monitoring systems, expanding the number of locations monitored and reducing the costs associated with these assessments.

On the other hand, the centre is also responsible for gathering feedback from end users—farmers, technicians, and managers—on the project’s technology in order to adjust the system’s design and facilitate its practical use in different agricultural and environmental contexts.

At the same time, the consortium is working on developing a mobile application that will make data more accessible and on organising training courses tailored to different user profiles.

About Al4SoilHealth

 Al4SoilHealth is a European project that aims to create a digital infrastructure to monitor and predict soil health indicators across the continent. The initiative seeks to support the EU’s Soil and Food Health Mission in achieving the objectives set out in the EU Soil Protection Strategy for 2030.

In addition to NEIKER, the consortium comprises 27 other European entities from Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Finland, France, and Hungary.