The national seminar of the "Inventory, Management and Soil Conservation "(IGCS) was held on 1^th and 2^nd of December in Strasbourg (France) at the Home of Agriculture.

Co-organized by the Association for Agricultural Renewal in Alsace (ARAA) and InfoSol unit of INRA Orléans, various presentations followed by discussions were held on different aspects of soil science:

- How to meet the needs of users who need more detailed local data, especially with regards to the available soil data 1:250.000?

- Monitoring of soil organic matter,

- Access to digital data on soils,

- Examples of applications of enhancing soil data in France and in neighbouring territories

The event was a chance for the GS SOIL partner Region Alsace to gain a complete overview of programs and knowledge of soil monitoring in France: IGCS, Network Quality Measurement of Soil (RMQS) and bank analysis land (BDAT).

It was also a great opportunity to present the European experiences of ARAA and the Regional Council of Alsace made through their contribution to the project GS SOIL. Together with the project partner BGR (German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) the French partners work on a joint French-German test case in the framework of the establishment of the GS SOIL deliverable “Best Practice Guidelines for Soil Data Se-mantic Harmonization”. The aim of which is to test the feasibility of presenting small scale soil data of France and Germany in one harmonized map. The results of the harmonisation efforts were presented brilliantly by Rainer Baritz (BGR). The feedback on the work done in GS SOIL was very positive and the organizers hope the presentations provided new ideas to our French friends to be inspired!