The ESA Symposium on Earth observation for soil protection and restoration rediscovers soils from many points of view: biochemical, ecological, technical, analytical, social, political and economic. It aims to:

• To frame the applicability of Earth observation technologies for soil protection and restoration requirements targeted by international and EU related policies, including monitoring, reporting and verification.
• To present and evaluate the WORLDSOILS Soil Organic Carbon Monitoring System for SOC prediction over bare and permanently covered soils, and the lessons learnt from validation case studies.
• To gather identify requirements for the development of EO-based soil monitoring systems and options for sustainable operations and business models.
• To explore opportunities for a downstream service to support national and European agencies in reporting on soil health/quality and thus contributing to the Land Degradation Monitoring and reporting on Sustainable Development Goal 15.3.1.
• To demonstrate the capacity of satellite remote sensing, alone or in combination, to monitor, validate, report or verify other specific soil components.