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1Arusha 11-15/12/2006
Luca Montanarella
EUROPEAN COMMISSIONJOINT RESEARCH CENTRE
Institute for Environment and SustainabilityTP 280
I-21020 Ispra (VA), Italy
Trends in Land Degradation in Europe
2Arusha 11-15/12/2006
EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection adopted by the European Commission on the
22nd of September 2006
• COMMUNICATION COM(2006) 231 on the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection
• DIRECTIVE COM(2006) 232 establishing a framework for the protection of soil and amending Directive 2004/35/EC
• IMPACT ASSESSMENT SEC(2006) 620 of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection
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The impact of human activities on soil
Blocking of soil functions important to the ecology of the landscape
Destruction of soil
Gradual destruction of soils
Reduction in soil fertility
Soil erosion
Manures and fertilisers
Sewage sludge
Gravel extraction
CompactionGradual disappearance of farms
Pesticides & herbicides
Destruction of soil
Changes in the structure of soils
Reduction in soil fertility
SealingDistructionof humus
Accumulation/Contamination
Heavy metals
Contamination of soils and ground water with applied agrochemicals and atmospheric pollutants
Changes in soil composition
Adverse impacts on living organisms in the soil
Acidification
Release of toxic substances
AcidsDiffuse input of contaminants as
particulates
Persistent substances
Salinisation
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Threats to soil as identified in COM(2002) 179
• Erosion• Decline in organic matter • Soil contamination• Soil sealing• Soil compaction• Decline in soil biodiversity• Salinisation• Floods and landslides
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PESERA Soil Erosion Risk Assessment
Water erosion: 115 Million ha Wind erosion: 42 Million ha
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Main human-induced driving forces
•Soil disturbance e.g. ploughing up-and-down slopes
•Removal of vegetative soil cover and/or hedgerows
•Increased field size (open fields)
•Abandonment of terraces
•Late sowing of winter cereals
•Overstocking
•Poor crop management
•Inappropriate use of heavy machinery, in agricultural and forestry practices, but also during construction works.
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Consequences of erosion•On-site effects
•Loss of soil
•Loss of soil fertility due to disrupted nutrient cycles
•Restrictions on land use hindering future redevelopment and reducing the area of productive and valuable soil available for other activities (agricultural and forestry production, recreation etc.)
•Land value depreciation
•Off-site effects
•Damage to infrastructures due to excessive sediment load
•Diffuse pollution of surface water
•Negative effects on aquatic ecosystems and thereby biodiversity
•Reduced water retention capacity, hence higher flood risk
•Human health problems due to dust and particles in the air
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Cost of soil erosionTable 1: Estimated total annual cost of soil erosion (million € 2003)
On-site costs
Off-site costs Total estimate
Lower bound 40 680 720
Intermediate 588 6,676 7,264
Upper bound 860 13,139 13,999
Note: These estimates are taken from the Ecologic study and relate to the surface affected by erosion in 13 countries and to five land use categories covering a surface area of 150 million ha
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Organic Carbon (%) No Data 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 5 5 - 10 10 - 25 25 - 35 > 35
Organic carbon content (%) in the surface horizon (0-30 cm) of soils
Organic CarbonGt 0.02.55.07.510.012.515.0
0.5 3.5
5.0
1.6 7.1
0.3
0.8 5.8
0.7
2.0
0.6
5.6
5.7
13.8 12.5
1.5
1.8
1.1
1.1 0.6
1.2 1.0 0.2 0.5 0.5 1.0
2.3
1.0
0.2 0.6
0.2
0.2
National Soil Organic Carbon stocks (0-30cm) in Gt
Model output Aggregated results
Topsoil Organic Carbon Content (30cm)
Organic matter decline
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Estimated changes in carbon stocksacross England & Wales (and UK)
Bellamy et al., Nature 437, 245-248 (2005)
Original Corg (g kg-1)
% o
f are
a of
E&
W
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0-20
> 30
0
100-
200
30-5
020
-30
50-1
00
200-
300
Rat
e of
cha
nge,
Mt y
r-1
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
0-20
> 30
0
100-
200
30-5
020
-30
50-1
00
200-
300
Net rate of change in England & Wales = - 4.4 Mt yr-1
Net rate of change in UK ≈ - 4.4 x UK / E&W topsoil OC stock≈ -13 Mt yr-1
% o
f tot
al O
C s
tock
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0-20
> 30
0
100-
200
30-5
0
20-3
0
50-1
00
200-
300
OC stock = Corg x BD x depth x arewhere BD = 1.3 – {0.275 ln(Corg/10)
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Main human-induced driving forces
•Conversion of grassland to arable land
•Drainage of wetlands
•Poor crop rotation and plant residue management such as burning crops residues
•Accelerated mineralization due to management practices such as continued tillage
•Deforestation
Soil organic carbon decline
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Consequences of SOM decline•Release of greenhouse gases
•Negative effects on biodiversity, including soil biodiversity
•Reduced water infiltration due to changes in soil structure, hence higher flood risk
•Reduced absorption of pollutants and increased water and air pollution
•Increased erosion with the effects stated above such as:
•Loss of fertile soil
•Loss of soil fertility (i.a. due to disrupted nutrient cycles)
•Damage to infrastructures due to excessive sediment load
•Diffuse pollution of surface water
•Negative effects on aquatic ecosystems and thereby biodiversity
•Restrictions on land use and hindering future redevelopment and reducing the area of productive and valuable soil available for other activities (agricultural and forestry production, recreation etc.)
•Land value depreciation
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Loss of Biodiversity in SoilConsequences of biodiversity decline
•Reduced food web functioning and consequently crop yield losses
•Reduced soil formation
•Reduced nutrient cycling and nitrogen fixation
•Reduced carbon sequestration
•Reduced resilience of the soil to endure pressures
•Reduced recycling of organic waste/litter
•Increased plant pests and diseases
•Reduced water infiltration rate and water holding capacity
•Reduced bioremediation capacity
•Hampered soil structure (by affecting the stabilisation of organo-mineral complexes)
•Reduced genetic resources present in the soil, including moral and ethical consequences
•Negative impacts on terrestrial biodiversity outside of soil
Fungy(35000)
Nematodes(5000)
Protozoa(1500)
Algae (2500)
Bacteria(3200)
Acari(25000)
Others (6200)
Collembolla(6500)
Number of known
species in soil
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Soil Salinisation in EuropeSalinisation affects around 3.8 million ha in Europe
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Main human-induced driving forces for salinisation
•Poor irrigation technology
•Inappropriate drainage
•Use of saline waters for irrigation and the overexploitation of groundwater
Consequences of salinisation•On-site effects
•Loss of soil fertility due to toxic effects of high salt content
•Loss of biodiversity
•Land value depreciation
•Off-site effects
•Reduced water infiltration and retention resulting in increased water run-off
•Damage to transport infrastructure from shallow saline groundwater
•Damage to water supply infrastructure
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Yearly cost of salinisation in selected countries (million €) (LB: lower bound; UB: upper bound)
Spain Hungary Bulgaria
LB UB LB UB LB UB
On-site costs
Agricultural yield losses
42.71 137.64 70.16 133.91 1.08 5.38
Infrastructure damage
12.08 18.23 1.32
Off-site costs Environmental
damage 4.83 7.29 0.53
Total 59.62 154.55 95.68 159.43 2.93 7.23
Cost of Soil Salinisation in Europe
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Soil contaminationMain human induced driving forces
•Industrial installations
•Mining installations
•Illegal waste dumps and landfill sites not properly managed
•Storage of chemicals
•Accidental and provoked spills of chemicals
•Atmospheric depositions of dangerous substances
•Military sites
•Intentional introduction of dangerous substances in the soil
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Consequences of soil contamination
•Risk to human health for people living on and in the surroundings of a contaminated site (through different exposure paths, e.g. consumption of food grown in from contaminated areas)
•Contamination of surface water, mainly through run off of contaminated sediments
•Contamination of groundwater and hence drinking water if extracted from groundwater
•Risk to human health through drinking water extracted underneath of a contaminated site
•Risk of ecotoxicity for the flora and fauna living in the soil on the site and around a contaminated site causing loss of biodiversity and biological activity
•Loss of soil fertility due to disrupted nutrient cycles
•Restrictions on land use and hindering future redevelopment and reducing the area of productive and valuable soil available for other activities (agricultural and forestry production, recreation etc.)
•Land value depreciation
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The Cost of Soil ContaminationEstimated total annual cost caused by soil contamination for EU25 (€ M, 2003)
207,904207,615289Upper bound estimate
17,31817,126192Intermediate estimate
2,3792,28396Lower bound estimate
TotalOff-site costsOn-site costs
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Soil Compaction in Europe36% of European Soils are having high or very high susceptibility to compaction
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Soils in Europe can support different loads depending on their soil strength
Precompression stress at a given pore water pressure pF 1.8 for topsoils of Europe in relation to a given low topsoil load (tyre inflation pressure: 60 kPa), high topsoil stress: 200 kPa)
Classification of the effective soil strength by the relationship of precompression stress to soil pressure: >1.5 very stable, elastic deformation, 1.5-1.2 stable, 1.2-0.8 labile, >0.8 unstable, additional plastic deformation.
Source: R. Horn, personal communication
22Arusha 11-15/12/2006
The Impact of Soil Compaction in EuropeDamage due to increasing soil deformation
After rain storm
Rapid water tableincrease in rivers and lakes
Reduced groundwater recharge
erosion
N2O gas
emission
N - loss due to stagnic water
Effects on the environment
Surface waterrunoff increase
Heavy machinerycompacts arable, forest, and pasture soils
Consequences for plant production
Reduced growth, higher uncertainty
less yield
Increased fungideseases,
more weeds
Reduced rootgrowth (lessdense and deep)
Soil biota suffersSoil quality declinesdue to- reduced porevolume,- reduced aeration
-Water infiltration reduced,
- soils remain longer wetand cold,
- more slaking problems, - reduced water storage
Effects on soil management
- higher draft energy required, - higher fuel consumption,- wet and cold soils result in
smallernumber of working days,
- more fertilizers needed
Dust emission increased
Source: R. Horn, personal communication
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Soil Sealing by Infrastructure and Housing
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Main human driving forces for sealing
•Urban sprawl
•Increased transport
•Movement of population
Consequences of sealing•Disruption of gas, water and energy fluxes
•Increased flood risks
•Reduced groundwater recharge
•Increases water pollution (due to runoff water from housing and traffic areas being normally unfiltered and potentially contaminated with harmful chemicals)
•Loss in soil and terrestrial biodiversity (due to fragmentation of habitats)
The Impact of Soil Sealing
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Landslides
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Main human-induced driving forces for landslides
•Rupture of topography such as due to construction works
•Land use changes such as deforestation and land abandonment
•Extractions of materials
Consequences of landslides
• Loss of human lives and well-being
• Damage to property and infrastructure
• Indirect negative effects on economic activities due to interruption of f.i. transport routes
• Loss of fertile soil
• Contamination of soil due to damage to infrastructure such as pipelines and storage facilities
• Potential contamination of surface waters with associated off-site costs as described already under erosion
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Incidences and costs of landslides in Europe
No. of events
Casualties (total) (av/event)
Affected people (total) (av/event)
Cost € (total) (av/event)
Austria 2 43 22 - - - -
Italy 8 1,387 173 10,100 1,263 1,200,000,000 600,000,000*
Sweden 1 13 13 50 50 11,000,000 11,000,000
UK 1 140 140 - - - -
Sum 12 1,583 132 10,150 846 1,211,000,000 403,666,667**
Source: EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database www.em-dat.net – Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. * Average based on two out of eight cases, for which there is quantified economic data. ** The average figure (average per event) is based on the three cases of landslides where quantitative data on economic impacts was available (Valtelina/Italy, July 1987, €500 M damage; Ancona/Italy, December 1982, €700 M damage; Gothenburg/Sweden, December 1977, €11 M damage).
The Cost of Landslides in Europe
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Conclusions• Extensive soil and land degradation processes are occurring
in Europe.• Observed degradation processes are mostly human induced. • Extreme climatic events may further exacerbate the impact
of the land degradation on local population.• The total costs of soil degradation that could be assessed
for erosion, organic matter decline, salinisation, landslides and contamination on the basis of available data, would be up to €38 billion annually for EU25.
• The recently adopted Soil Thematic Strategy by the European Commission provides the legal framework for EU Member States to implement adequate responses in order to revert the negative trend of land and soil degradation in Europe.
29Arusha 11-15/12/2006
Preliminary announcement
Wengen-2007International and Interdisciplinary Workshop
Desertification and Climate Change
Hotel Regina, Wengen, Switzerland, September 10-14, 2007
Co-organized by:
Michel Verstraete, Andreas Brink and Luca MontanarellaEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy
Bob ScholesCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa
&
Martin BenistonUniversities of Geneva and Fribourg, Switzerland
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Thank you for your interest!
“Unity in diversity”
