Climate change will cause hot and dry summers with around twice as many days above 30 °C, as well as a 10-20 % decrease in precipitation during the vegetation period, more frequent dry periods in summer and a higher intensity of rainfall during thunderstorms on both sides of the border. Weinviertel (AT) and South Moravia (CZ) are among the areas particularly affected by drought. This does not only increase drought stress in crops, limiting yields, but also soil erosion, resulting in loss of fertile soil.

Therefore, farming methods that save water and improve soil structure will be essential.
Good soil structure, which can quickly absorb large amounts of water during heavy rainfall and store it in the soil due to its high water infiltration capacity and high water storage capacity, counteracts erosion and also secures a longer-lasting water supply for the crops. Soil structure is closely linked to soil organic matter content and to a large and active soil microflora. The excretions of soil microorganisms and plant roots are crucially responsible for the stability of soil aggregates. Earthworm burrows enable several litres of water a minute per square metre to seep into the soil during heavy rainfall.

Therefore, water-efficient farming methods and augmenting soil organic matter are essential for the adaptation to climate change. However, there are still some problems to be solved here: Cover crops, for example, greatly improve soil structure, but with increasingly dry conditions in summer it becomes more and more difficult to successfully establish them. Innovative, drought-tolerant cover crop mixtures and methods are therefore needed, as well as solutions for innovative, water-efficient cultivation methods such as strip-till soil cultivation, which currently often require the use of herbicides that damage soil microflora.

However, the basic prerequisite for adapting soil cultivation using climate change-adapted methods is to create awareness among farmers and to give them the means to assess the climate fitness of their own soil with the help of easily applicable methods.

The aim of the project is therefore to show land managers how they can evaluate the climate resilience of their own soils and what measures they can take. How? With an innovative method for assessing the climate fitness of soils tested under practical conditions in the project, supplemented by easy tools for quick assessment of climate resilience, as well as with management measures for climate change adaptation tested in demonstration trials.

Based on the method for assessing soil health created in the completed AGRISAN project, the RESISOL project aims to develop an innovative method for assessing the climate fitness of soils. The cross-border cooperation between BFA, ZERA and MENDELU brings together expertise that is not available in their own countries.

In addition to the main soil properties of the Agrisan method, the activity of microorganisms, soil fungi and earthworms will be measured and the mineral-associated organic matter, which represents the proportion of substances that originate from microorganisms and root excretions and are precursors of stable humus, will be analysed. 

At the same time, a set of easy methods and instruments will be developed that can be used by practitioners to gather information on the climate fitness of their own soils. The assessment is not carried out, as would be usual, in comparison with established guideline values, but innovatively in comparison with a near-natural soil at the same location as a measure of the maximum that can be achieved at this location. This enables a truly site-specific assessment in which factors such as soil type and small-scale climatic conditions are automatically taken into account, thereby preventing misjudgements.

Integrating parameters that directly characterise the vitality of the soil is also an innovative approach. Indeed, it is precisely these parameters that are essential for assessing soil structure and climate fitness. Going beyond current practice in the development of methods is the intensive involvement of soil managers, the future users, in the development and testing process. On the one hand, this ensures the applicability and practical suitability of the method through feedback from practitioners and, on the other hand, it fosters their identification with the method. This way, it can be ascertained that they will apply and use the method. Joint cross-border events will be organised to communicate the knowledge gained in the project to the target groups.