The Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive (SML) marks a historic turning point for Europe. Its goal is to protect and restore soil health across the EU by 2050, through a shared legal framework and tools powered by data and AI.

On 23 October 2025, the European Parliament gave final approval to the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive (SML)—the first EU law devoted exclusively to soil health. This milestone crowns more than a decade of policy and scientific efforts, delivering on a flagship promise of the European Green Deal: a common legal framework to protect, monitor, and restore soils, enabling Europe’s land to regain its health by 2050.

Healthy soils are essential to environmental and social well-being: they store carbon, support agricultural productivity, mitigate flooding, and sustain biodiversity. Yet soil health is under pressure from intensive farming practices driven by rising global food demand. The loss of soil organic matter is among the most serious threats, alongside declining biodiversity, soil compaction from heavy machinery, and erosion.

To reverse these trends, we must identify and promote the most effective farming practices for soil protection and recovery. Given the complexity of soil management—and the added strain of the climate crisis—there is no room for error. We need accurate mapping of future changes to plan targeted, local interventions. This, in turn, requires robust measurement tools that give land managers and policymakers the confidence and foresight they need to adopt more sustainable practices.

Open, innovative tools for the future of soil management

This is where AI 4 Soil Health, an EU-funded Horizon Europe project, comes in. The project is developing a free app combining artificial intelligence with advanced soil health measurement techniques to support farmers and land managers across Europe in improving soil management at local scale.

Over the next three years, the project will gather data from farms and pilot sites across Europe to build reliable predictive models that can guide targeted interventions. Along the way, AI 4 Soil Health will share knowledge and best practices, offer training and facilitating peer learning within Europe’s soil community.

Backing SML implementation with science

The SML provides the policy framework for the scientific and technological innovations developed by AI 4 Soil Health, strengthening the link between data, monitoring, and decision-making. Within the project, ISINNOVA has produced a policy brief for decision-makers highlighting five priority areas where the project contributes actionable science to support the implementation of the Directive across the EU:

  • Soil districts and units;
  • Monitoring and assessment framework;
  • Measurements and methodologies;
  • EU-level data infrastructure and support;
  • Stakeholder support and engagement.
Download the policy brief

Turning research into practice: AI 4 Soil Health in action

The SML requires Member States to monitor soil health periodically, assess trends, and report to the European Commission every six years. The Commission will review progress and update the Directive as needed. AI 4 Soil Health supports this effort with targeted studies and tools designed to turn policy into practice, validating results across five key areas:

  1. Soil districts and units: Aarhus University validated in Denmark a method based on monitoring units and geostatistics—a useful approach for EU countries setting up soil surveillance programmes.
  2. Monitoring and assessment framework: The University of Aberdeen and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology developed an indicator system to define soil-health objectives, alert values, and links to policy targets.
  3. Measurements and methodologies: Stockholm University is building an SML-aligned toolbox for affordable, comparable in situ measurements, covering parameters such as organic matter, compaction, water holding capacity, salinity, and biodiversity.
  4. EU data infrastructure and support: OpenGeoHub created a high-resolution Soil Health Data Cube, integrating satellite data for climate assessments and scenario analysis.
  5. Soil resilience and stakeholder engagement: The Soil Association and ISINNOVA lead engagement, consultation, training, and field testing to co-develop AI tools and indicators that are robust, ethical, and useful to a wide range of stakeholders—ensuring solutions that are practical and politically implementable.

Thanks to this shared commitment, Europe’s path toward healthier, more resilient soils is being built on sound science and state-of-the-art tools, and ISINNOVA is proud to contribute to this endeavor.