Living Soil Museums in Ukraine: A New Platform for Soil Literacy, Citizen Science and Community Engagement

Yuriy Dmytruk; Vasyl Cherlinka

doi:10.63095/NBSEH.26.884325

Authors

Yuriy Dmytruk HEI ‘Podillia State University (ROR: https://ror.org/04p1tkq77) , Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine
Vasyl Cherlinka Society of Soil Experts and Land Managers of Bukovyna 'Terra', Chernivtsi, Ukraine; Research and Solutions, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63095/NBSEH.26.884325

Keywords:

Soil literacy, Citizen science, Public engagement, Ukraine

Abstract

Soil remains one of the least visible and least understood natural resources; even as European and global policy frames soil health as a key to food security, climate resilience and biodiversity. Traditional soil museums, built around preserved soil monoliths, cannot communicate what soil health actually means because a preserved sample cannot show an alive and actively changing system. This article describes the establishment of two Living Soil Museums in Ukraine—in Poltava and Kamianets-Podilskyi—developed under the Horizon Europe SoilTribes project. These living exhibits keep an undisturbed soil profile in its natural state in the landscape and install continuous sensors for temperature, moisture, reaction and other parameters, visualized for visitors in near real time. The discussion embraces the aims, design, construction and sensor architecture of the living museums and their emerging role as springboards for citizen-science for schools, farmers, volunteers and the wider public in the context of the European Union’s mission A Soil Deal for Europe. Living soil museums by no means replace conventional soil collections but offer a replicable model for deeper public engagement with our soils.

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