URSOILL

Rapid urbanization, with a growing share of the population living in cities, places increasing pressure on urban soils that are essential for delivering ecosystem services. However, these soils are widely degraded by sealing, contamination, and compaction, limiting their environmental and societal benefits. URSOILL is inspired by this challenge and builds on lessons from previous initiatives such as iCOSHELLs, which is more focused on agricultural soil. The project addresses scientific, technical, and governance challenges through a multi-actor, interdisciplinary approach that brings together city planners, policymakers, civil society, academia, and technology providers to co-create solutions that are robust, socially acceptable, and economically viable.

URSOILL will establish five Living Labs across Sweden, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Luxembourg to co-create and test solutions for urban soil restoration. The project’s innovation lies in its integrated Living Lab methodology, combining depollution through nature-based solutions, soil desealing strategies, and community-driven soil literacy actions within real urban environments.

URSOILL follows a structured, multi-phase approach covering Living Lab setup, co-creation and solution testing, monitoring and refinement using harmonized soil indicators and digital tools, and finally replication and upscaling through decision-support and governance tools. Advanced monitoring, predictive modelling of soil indicators, and techno-economic feasibility assessments ensure solutions are both effective and replicable.

LIST leads the activities for the Luxembourg Urban Soil Living lab, playing a key role in developing the scientific framework, soil monitoring methodologies, indicator systems, and predictive models. Through this contribution, LIST ensures the scientific robustness, scalability, and policy relevance of URSOILL’s innovative solutions.

The project will increase knowledge to improve soil health and foster innovation through collaboration between research, industry, policymakers, and society, notably via Living Labs. It will deliver practical solutions and sustainable land-use methods mainly focused on the use of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that support climate adaptation, enhance soil functions, and improve soil literacy, awareness, and stakeholder engagement. The project will also support the implementation of the EU Soil Monitoring Law, enabling real-life applications in urban and land management contexts.

URSOILL official website