1 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Panos Panagos, Luca Montanarella, Arwyn Jones Soil Related...

1ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006

Panos Panagos, Luca Montanarella, Arwyn Jones

Soil Related policies in EU:The EU Thematic Strategy on Soil

Protection


Bruxelles, 22.9.2006COM(2006)232

Proposal for a DIRECTIVE of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Establishing a framework for the protection of

Soil.

A strategy to keep Europe's soils robust and healthy

Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm


Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection3 Components (Adopted by Commission 22/9/2006):

• DIRECTIVE establishing a framework for the protection of soil risk from erosion, compaction, salinisation, decline of soil organic matter, landslides, contamination, sealing and loss of soil biodiversity

• COMMUNICATION on the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection: Why further action is needed?

• IMPACT ASSESSMENT Report: Analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts

The strategy is one of 7 Thematic Strategies that the Commission has presented. The other strategies cover air pollution, the marine environment, waste prevention and recycling, natural resources, the urban environment and pesticides..


• 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….

Soil as a non-renewable natural resource with multiple functions:


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


• Soil is a non renewable natural resource of common interest to Europe.

• European environmental legislation is incomplete without soil policy

• Soil degradation has transboundary consequences

• Differences among Member States in dealing with soil problems may distort competition within the single market

• As soil contamination may affect the quality of food and feed products

• The health of the European population can be impaired as a result of soil degradation

Why act at EU Level?


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


Consultation Process: 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


http://eusoils.jrc.it/ESDB_Archive/eusoils_docs/

Reports: Produced by the Working Groups


Annual cost of soil degradation

Though difficult to estimate, several studies demonstrate significant annual costs of soil degradation to society in the ranges of:

• erosion: €0.7 – 14.0 billion[1],• organic matter decline: €3.4 – 5.6 billion,• compaction: no estimate possible,• salinisation: €158 – 321 million[2],• landslides: up to €1.2 billion per

event,• contamination: €0.6 – 17.3 billion[3],• sealing: no estimate possible,• biodiversity decline: no estimate possible.

[1] This estimate covers only costs of erosion in 13 countries, including the major Member States where erosion occurs. Data is not available for the others.[2] This estimate covers only the costs of salinisation in three countries, data is not available for others.[3] An independent study estimated that the costs of soil contamination could amount annually to up to €208 billion. Nevertheless this estimate had a high

degree of uncertainty, therefore the intermediate value of €17.3 billion per year was retained.


Erosion, organic matter decline, salinisation, compaction and landslides

Member States establish

RISK

ACCEPTABILITY

Risk Area IDENTIFICATION

Member States adopt MEASURES to achieve target

Member States establish a TARGET for Risk Area

COMMON CRITERIA set in Directive

REPORT to Commission

Model or empirical

MONITORING

5 Soil Threats:


Contamination

Common DEFINITION in

Directive

Common LIST OF POTENTIALLY

POLLUTING ACTIVITIES in

Directive

Member States establish an INVENTORY of contaminated sites

Soil Status Report

Member States adopt a NATIONAL REMEDIATION STRATEGY

REPORT to Commission

MECHANISM FOR « ORPHAN SITES »


1. Significant collaboration with DG Environment.

2. JRC / Land Management Natural Hazards Unit provided considerable input into formulation of text.

3. Impact Assessment document – ESBN Report.

4. Soil Atlas, European Soil Portal and JRC Summer School specifically mentioned.

5. European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) = heart of European soil information for foreseeable future.

JRC and Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection


• The adoption of the Directive by the European Parliament and the Council could take two years

• Afterwards, The Member States (MS) will transpose it into national legislation and start implementing.

The general provisions of the Directive are into force from that moment on

Within 5 years after the transposition, MS will have to identify risk areas

Within 2 years afterwards, they will have to adopt targets and a programme of measures to reach these targets and report to the European Commission

Report every 5 years

Within 5 years, the MS will also have to achieve a preliminary inventory of contaminated sites.

Within 7 years, the MS have to establish a national remediation strategy in order to manage their contaminated sites

Next Steps?


http://eusoils.jrc.it

European Soil Database & Soil Portal


The Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment - PESERA - is a process-based and spatially distributed model to quantify soil erosion by water and assess its risk across Europe

Policy Example: PESERA Soil Erosion Risk

Assessment


Results: PESERA Soil Erosion Risk

Assessment


Local Scale: Validation of research - building confidence

Central Belgium (Verstraeten and Poesen, K.U.Leuven)

Czech Republic (Dostal et al., CVUT Prague)

Spain (Avendano Salas et al., Devente, Poesen and Verstraeten) Italy (Bazzoffi et al., ISSDS, Firenze)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

y = 0.4883x + 0.7188

R2 = 0.5445

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00


European Level: Aggregated results


The new system of European Data Centers for the environment (“the group of four”)

EUROSTATWaste

Natural resourcesIPP

JRCSoil

Forest

EEAClimate Change

WaterAir

Land useBiodiversity

DG ENVData requirements


Thank you for your interest!

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1 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Panos Panagos, Luca Montanarella, Arwyn Jones Soil Related...

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