SOIL TALKS Episode 2: The green heart of Vilnius | InBestSoil Lighthouse 5

In this second episode of SOIL TALKS, Andrés Rodríguez Seijo, InBestSoil project coordinator, speaks with Prof. Dr Paulo Alexandre da Silva Pereira, coordinator of Lighthouse 5 (LH5) and researcher at the Environment Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania. The episode takes us to Vilnius, Lithuania, where LH5 focuses on the role of urban soils in supporting healthier, more resilient cities. The discussion explores the Baltupiai district, where urban gardens, lawns, and public green spaces provide a real-world setting to study how different forms of urban land use affect soil health. Prof. Pereira explains how Vilnius has a strong tradition of urban gardening, with many residents closely connected to soil as a source of food production. While garden soils can be relatively healthy thanks to active management and composting, other urban soils, such as lawns and parks, often face hidden degradation. Even when green spaces look healthy, they may be affected by compaction caused by intensive maintenance and heavy machinery, reducing their ability to store water, regulate floods, support biodiversity, and contribute to a better urban microclimate. The conversation also highlights the methods used in LH5, from conventional laboratory analyses to scalable tools such as thermal drones and field sensors. These approaches help researchers assess soil health in urban environments and better understand the links between soil condition, vegetation, cooling effects, water regulation, and biodiversity. By showing how soil health underpins flood regulation, cooling, biodiversity, and urban wellbeing, LH5 helps make the case for valuing urban soils as essential natural infrastructure for European cities. Learn more about InBestSoil: https://inbestsoil.eu/