1 32nd IGC Florence 2004 Luca Montanarella Policies for a Sustainable Use of the Soil Resource.

1 32nd IGC Florence 2004

Luca Montanarella

Policies for a Sustainable Use of the Soil Resource


• Food and other biomass production

– Agriculture

• Storage, filtering, and transformation

– Water protection

• Habitat and gene pool

– Nature protection

• Physical and cultural environment for mankind

– Archeology and cultural heritage

• Source of raw materials

– Peat, Sand, Clay,etc….

Main functions of soils:


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

Compaction

Gradual disappearance of farms

Pesticides & herbicides

Destruction of soil

Changes in the structure of soils

Reduction in soil fertility

SealingDistruction of

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


SOILFEATURES

SOIL POLICYREQUIRES…

SOIL IS A VARIABLEMEDIUM

LOCALPERSPECTIVE

SOIL IS A NON-RENEWABLERESOURCE

PREVENTION ANDPRECAUTION

SOIL IS A STORAGE/BUFFERMEDIUM ANTICIPATION

SOIL IS A SOURCE OFBIODIVERSITY PROTECTION

SOIL IS A SUBJECT OFPROPERTY

ENVIRONMENTALLIABILITY

Policy relevant features of soils:


Policies for a Sustainable Use of the Soil Resource

• National – USA, Germany, United Kingdom, etc….

• Trans-national (regional)– EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection

• Global– UN MEA’s: UNFCCC, UNCBD, UNCCD


Bruxelles, le 16.4.2002COM(2002) 179 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THEEUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/agriculture/soil_protection.htm


Main elements of the proposed strategy• Soils are multi-functional (horizontal policy

area):– Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)– Water Policy (WFD)– Waste Policy– ………………..

• Knowledge based– European Soil Information System– Soil Monitoring Directive


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


Council June 2002

EESC September 2002

CoR February 2003

EP May 2003

Opinions of EU Institutions


Participatory approach

Soil mailbox: [email protected]

Soil internet site: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/

policies: Soil

Soil electronic library and discussion site: CIRCA (june 03)


Soil Policy Development Organisational Set-up

Advisory Forum Chair DG ENV

Stakeholders meetings

Chair DG ENV

TWG 1MonitoringGermany/JRC

Co-chair UK

TWG 2Erosion

Spain/BelgiumCo-chair EEB

TWG 3Organic matter

FranceCo-chair IUSS/FEAD

TWG 4Contamination

Austria/NLCo-chair EEA

ISWG = Interservice Working GroupTWG = Technical Working Group

Commission ISWG Chair DG ENV

Technical co-ordination group and secretariat Chair DG ENV

TWG5Research

W. Blum/ RTDCo-chair ELO


COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No. 1782/2003 of 29 September 2003


Brussels, 23.7.2004

COM(2004) 516 final

2004/0175 (COD)

.

Proposal for a

DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in the Community (INSPIRE)


Architecture & Standards

Chair : JRC Ispra

Legal Aspects& Data Policy

Chair : UK

Funding & Implementation

structuresChair : SE

Common Reference Data & Metadata

Chair : ESTAT

ImpactAnalysisChair : NL

Environmental thematic

co-ordinationChair: EEA

Inter-sectoral co-ordinationChair: ESTAT

…..

biodiversitysoils

seveso

urban

noiseforest

water

Environmental components

HorizontalComponents

Agricultural components

Transportcomponents

Other components

Technical Co-ordination & Secretariat JRC Ispra - Institute for Environment and Sustainability

COGIChair: ESTAT

INSPIRE Expert GroupChair : DG ENV & ESTAT

Phase 2: other sectors

Otherthematic

co-ordinationChair:

Transportthematic

co-ordinationChair:

Agriculturalthematic

co-ordinationChair:

Phase 1: Environmental Sector

INSPIRE

Thematic Components


INSPIRE Implementation

http://eu-geoportal.jrc.it/


$

#

##

##

#

#

##

#

#

# #

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

# # #

#

#

##

#

#

#

#

##

#

# # #

#

#

#

BGR

INRA

SSLRC

CSIC

NJ OS

##

ALTERRA

CSES

EUROPEAN SOIL BUREAU NETWORK

Soil data


European Soil Database: WRB classification

http://eusoils.jrc.it


Planned extension of the European Soil Database

19 32nd IGC Florence 2004 http://nsidc.org/fgdc/maps/circumpolar.html

National Snow and Ice Data Center


http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/wrb/wrbmaps/htm/soilres.htm


Decline in organic matter

• UNFCCC– Major terrestrial carbon

pool

• UNCBD– Major gene pool

• UNCCD– Major consequence of

desertification


Soils are a source and sink for atmospheric CO2


M. Robert, 2004


Organic Carbon (%) No Data 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 5 5 - 10 10 - 25 25 - 35 > 35

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

Corr

ection F

acto

r

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000Temperature Range (AAAT deg. C)

Semi-natural Cultivated Avg. Ground Data Model

TEMPERATURE CORRECTION FOR OCCeofficient for temperature variation

(> 3 ground measurements)

ctfTEMP nAAATcor cos*

Organic Carbon Content (30cm)

Within belts of uniform moistureconditions and comparable vegetation, the average total content of organic matter in soils increases by 2x to 3x for each 10 deg C fall in mean temperature.


Declining soil organic matter in S. Europe

74% of the land in southern Europe has a surface soil horizon(0-30cm) that on average contains less than 2% OC (3.4% OM)


Global soil protection policies:Synergies between the 3 Rio Conventions

Soil

UNCCD UNCBD

UNFCCC

1 32nd IGC Florence 2004 Luca Montanarella Policies for a Sustainable Use of the Soil Resource.

Documents

Transcript of 1 32nd IGC Florence 2004 Luca Montanarella Policies for a Sustainable Use of the Soil Resource.