Grasslands cover about one-third of the global ice-free land surface and deliver crucial ecosystem services. The state of grasslands and the balance between provisioning and regulating ecosystem services are largely determined by grassland use intensity. A better characterization of grassland production systems is essential to evolve toward more sustainable grassland management.

Small bodies in the Solar System hold an exciting position in the family of celestial bodies, as they might play a key role in understanding the formation of our heliocentric system, and, ultimately, life. Unlike (terrestrial) planets and larger natural satellites (moons), small bodies have experienced far less transformation, comparing today's state with theirs state in the early Solar System.

The concern about the role of soils in the global carbon budget and the effects of soil organic carbon (SOC) decline on soil quality has been incorporated in international treaties. Initiatives such as ‘4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate’ or ‘The Farm to Fork’ strategy are being implemented in the context of Paris Agreement to mitigate climate change.

  11:00 – 11:25 Arwyn Jones (EU Joint Research Centre) The need for remote sensing for soils from a policy perspective 11:25 – 11:50 Uta Heiden (German Aerospace Center) Remote sensing for croplands at the regional scale 11:50 – 12:15 Sabine Chabrillat (GFZ German research center for Geosciences and Leibniz University Hannover) The capacity of the new generation of hyperspectral satellites

After their formation, the Earth and Mars might have been very similar but today, contrary to the Earth, Mars is a very dry planet without plate tectonics and with a tenuous atmosphere of CO2 mainly. Understanding the structure of the interior of Mars is very important to provide new information about the prime structure and evolution of this planet.

Cosmogenic radionuclides accumulate at the Earth’ surface as a function of time and depth.

Polar ice cores are a unique archive of past climate change. Both Antarctica and Greenland have transformed our understanding of how the Earth System works. An ongoing European project in Antarctica will provide unique information on the grand transition from the 40,000- to 100,000- year cyclicity of ice ages.

Daisy de Hults, Experte communication sur les crises environnnementales au SPF Health, Environment,  présentera " Communication on the Environmental crises by the Belgian federal administration: challenges and aims"