Legacy soil data have been produced over 70 years in nearly all countries of the world. Unfortunately, data, information and knowledge are still currently fragmented and at risk of getting lost if they remain in a paper format. To process this legacy data into consistent, spatially explicit and continuous global soil information, data are being rescued and compiled into databases. Thousands of soil survey reports and maps have been scanned and made available online. The soil profile data reported by these data sources have been captured and compiled into databases. The total number of soil profiles rescued in the selected countries is about 800,000. Currently, data for 117, 000 profiles are compiled and harmonized according to GlobalSoilMap specifications in a world level database (WoSIS). The results presented at the country level are likely to be an underestimate. The majority of soil data is still not rescued and this effort should be pursued. The data have been used to produce soil property maps. We discuss the pro and cons of top-down and bottom-up approaches to produce such maps and we stress their complementarity. We give examples of success stories. The first global soil property maps using rescued data were produced by a top-down approach and were released at a limited resolution of 1km in 2014, followed by an update at a resolution of 250m in 2017. By the end of 2020, we aim to deliver the first worldwide product that fully meets the GlobalSoilMap specifications.

The goal of this study is the assessment of the future evolution of monthly temperature and precipitation and their influences exerted on droughts occurring in the Bârlad river basin (Eastern Romania). We have used recent results of experiments based on regional and global climate models under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCPs) scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5), which have been made accessible thanks to the EURO-CORDEX initiative. The impact of climate change on drought is assessed by using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). The correlations between the observed streamflow at the Bârlad basin outlet and the PDSI-related indices show that the PDSI represents reasonably well the local water balance. The linear trend analysis of multimodel ensemble means reveals that, under climate change, the basin-averaged PDSI will be lower thus indicating a tendence towards drought. The PDSI method applied to the Bârlad basin seems to show low sensitivity to soil characteristics such as available water capacity when drought trends are investigated. On the other hand, model results reveal that, under climate change conditions, the Thornthwaite formula for calculating the potential evapotranspiration will lead to a substantial overestimation of the aridity tendence whenever compared with the Penman–Monteith approach. Depending on the specific climate scenario and parametrization of potential evapotranspiration, droughts that were deemed as incipient, mild or severe towards the end of the 20th century will have been a normal feature towards the end of the 21st century

Most city planners and managers already recognize that urban areas require careful design/re-design and considered management, based on resource sustainability criteria. Involved aspects range from protection of natural and human resources, wise energy and water management, reduction of air pollution and traffic control, health and well-being of population, safeguard of cultural heritage, comfort standards in residential districts, industrial production, craftsmanship preservation, etc. Advanced instruments for territorial planning/management are required. Decisions should be based on "proper" information. Data set has to be accurate, objective, reliable, comprehensive and always up-to-date. Specific data/information have to be extracted out of all available information but some data/information have to be collected specifically for the purpose. This article is part of a wider research effort to carry out GIS (geographical information system) and a DSS (decision support system) for the city of Rome. Thematic maps are derived from accurately geo-coded remotely sensed images and used to draw "Guidance Tables for Urban Planning." A multidisciplinary team carries out coordinated work to this scope. Application examples and results for the city of Rome are illustrated in this paper, based on integration of multispectral data from various satellites (ESA-ERS, Landsat, SPOT) and MIVIS hyperspectral data from aircraft. High complexity has been observed in land cover types, surface composition and morphology, which is directly interrelated with all phenomena taking in urbanized areas (i.e. physical, chemical, social, economic, etc.). Attention has been focused on climate, urban elements, patterns and materials.

The objectives of this study is to evaluate SPOT/HRV data as acquired during the ADAM project. Between October 200 and July 2001, 39 SPOT/HRV images have been collected. They correspond to SPOT 1, 2 and 4. The consistency between images was analysed over a 10/spl times/10 km/sup 2/ area of agricultural crops located near Bucharest in Romania. The day to day signals show significant variations that could not be easily interpreted in terms of the surface characteristics. Artefacts such as residual clouds, view zenith angle, soil moisture or improper atmospheric correction are discussed. Conclusions are drawn on the quality of this time series and possible ways for improvement.

Surface soil moisture estimation from SAR (ERS-2 and Radarsat) images was investigated using the "water-cloud" model. It was verified that the "water-cloud" model can adequately represent the backscattering coefficients over winter wheat fields, during the entire growing season, as a function of canopy water content and surface soil moisture.

This study investigated the potential of high spatial resolution and high revisit frequency observations to monitor the LAI distribution over regional domains. It is based on the ADAM experiment during which 39 SOPT images were acquired from October 2000 and July 2001 over the study area located close to Bucharest in Romania. The study focuses on wheat crops for which intensive ground measurements were performed over the whole growing season for 40 elementary sampling units corresponding to about 30/spl times/30 m/sup 2/. The sampling units were divided into 10 for calibration and 30 for validation. The approach is based on the use of a semi-empirical model of LAI dynamics (MODLAI). It was first adjusted on the calibration units to smooth out local measurement uncertainties and interpolate the measurements to the dates of SPOT acquisition. Then empirical transfer functions were derived for each date, based on multiple linear regressions. Finally, the LAI was estimated for all the validation units at the SPOT dates. MODLAI was adjusted to the retrieved LAI of the validation units, and used to interpolate the values to the date of ground measurements. Finally, the LAI values derived this way were compared to those measured directly in the field. They show a very good consistency. The potentials of this approach and its adaptation to other applications are then discussed.