The estimation of soil carbon content is of pressing concern for soil protection and in mitigation strategies for global warming. This paper describes the methodology developed and the results obtained in a study aimed at estimating organic carbon contents (%) in topsoils across Europe. The information presented in map form provides policy-makers with estimates of current topsoil organic carbon contents for developing strategies for soil protection at regional level. Such baseline data are also of importance in global change modelling and may be used to estimate regional differences in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and projected changes therein, as required for example under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, after having taken into account regional differences in bulk density.The study uses a novel approach combining a rule-based system with detailed thematic spatial data layers to arrive at a much-improved result over either method, using advanced methods for spatial data processing. The rule-based system is provided by the pedo-transfer rules, which were developed for use with the European Soil Database. The strong effects of vegetation and land use on SOC have been taken into account in the calculations, and the influence of temperature on organic carbon contents has been considered in the form of a heuristic function. Processing of all thematic data was performed on harmonized spatial data layers in raster format with a 1 km  1 km grid spacing. This resolution is regarded as appropriate for planning effective soil protection measures at the European level. The approach is thought to be transferable to other regions of the world that are facing similar questions, provided adequate data are available for these regions. However, there will always be an element of uncertainty in estimating or determining the spatial distribution of organic carbon contents of soils.

International audienceThis article reviews major impacts of climate change on soil

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to propose a methodology based on the use of a simple and accessible database, such as Corine Land Cover (CLC), for providing an in depth evaluation of environmental sustainability. This evaluation has been carried out through the analysis of factors such as landscape and habitat composition, the level of biodiversity, the degree of anthropisation and soil sealing and the arable land availability.Design/methodology/approachStarting from the analysis of some of the existing approaches for the evaluation of environmental sustainability, this paper presents a GIS approach, based on the use of the Corine Land Cover (CLC), and other sources of geographical data, aimed at producing several thematic Environmental Sustainability Indicators, and one synthetic index.FindingsThe proposed methodology was found to enable a satisfactory assessment of the environmental state, at territorial scale, starting from an easy accessible land use data set. The adopted approach is tailored by the CLC, but can easily be adapted to other land cover/land use classification systems. The applications presented in this paper have been applied to a relatively small area, and other tests should be performed across Europe for a better evaluation of the methodology. However, the results obtained from the Emilia‐Romagna case study, showed a realistic and coherent picture of the environmental status in the area. Similarly to other successful sustainability indexes and/or indicators, the main advantage of the LUSI is the possibility of synthesizing, as a single value, the environmental sustainability of a given territory.Originality/valueThe application of the proposed methodology relies essentially on land use data and can be easily executed in batch mode, using simple models or script in a GIS environment. Contrary to other environmental sustainability indicators, where the land use data are only a sub‐set of the data required, LUSI core data set is represented by the Corine Land Cover, or other equivalent geographical database.