SoilTalk 5
“Nature based solutions: soil-water connections for sustainable landscapes"
Soil and water are an integrated system, and work together to provide the different ecosystem services the planet needs for food production, biodiversity sustenance and human health. Yet soil and water have been studied as separated entities, in silos, and therefore creating an incomplete perspective of their functioning. We are missing the part of the puzzle where they meet, and lacking understanding of how to support their ecosystem services and health.
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For this SoilTalk, we welcomed three experts who shared their unique perspectives on how we can understand soil-water connections as a whole and support them using a sustainable approach: through nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions refers to the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling socio-environmental challenges, such as climate change, water security, water pollution, and food security. In this SoilTalk we heard three different perspectives on how is it possible and best to use nature-based solutions for healthy soil-water connections in different landscapes and geographical scales.
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The event was co-organised by the Soil Care Network and UKSoils.org.
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This event was chaired by Macarena L. Cárdenas of earthwatch Europe and moderated by Ellen Fay of Sustainable Soils Alliance on 13th December 2021.
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Prof. Wouter Buytaert
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Wouter Buytaert is an expert on the impact of environmental change on the water cycle and its consequences for managing water resources and flood and drought risk. He has a deep interest in the relationships between water and soil. His work includes advancing hydrological process understanding and computer simulation, decision-support and the science-policy interface of water resources, and the link between water and sustainable development. He is working extensively in developing regions, with a particular interest in the Andes and the Himalayas.
Lucia Madrid
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Lucia Madrid is a member of a Non-Governmental Organization, the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Silviculture. She has 16 years experience in integrated landscape and forest management, and she holds a masters degree from the University of Cambridge in Environmental Policy. For 10 years she led a project on integrated landscape management with forest communities in the Valle de Bravo watershed that won the Land for Life Award, issued by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. She has worked in governmental institutions in Mexico, and she collaborates as a consultant for the World Bank, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the US Forest Service and other organisations.
Dr David Gasca Tucker
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Dr David Gasca Tucker is a Principal Hydrologist at Atkins Global. David works on water pollution at the fieldwork level, with monitoring measures for understanding the effectiveness of field scale agricultural measures or Natural Flood Management schemes at catchment level, as well as integrating the private sector in the UK Environmental Net Gain. He is also a member of the steering group for the Evenlode Catchment Partnership where he helps to provide guidance and advice on scientific aspects related to monitoring of hydro-ecology within the catchment. David will bring a unique perspective on measures from the private sector.