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A new report made public by the European Commission recommends a three-tiered approach focused on limiting the progression of soil sealing, mitigating its effects and compensating valuable soil losses by action in other areas.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik commenting on the new EU initiative said: “We rely on soils for some fundamental ecosystem services, and without them life on our planet would grind to a halt. We cannot afford to continue asphalting the soils. The new approach does not mean halting economic development or upgrading our infrastructures, but it does require a more sustainable approach." IP/11/624, Brussels, 23 May 2011.

Losing ground to asphalt

Soil is sealed when it is covered over with an impermeable material such as asphalt or concrete. Between 1990 and 2000, at least 275 hectares of soil were lost per day in the EU, amounting to 1.000 km² per year. Half of this soil is permanently sealed by impermeable layers of buildings, roads and parking lots.

According to the Commission’s report, this trend has been reduced to 252 hectare per day in recent years, but the rate of land consumption is still worrying. Between 2000 and 2006, average increase in artificial areas in the EU was 3%, with increases attaining 14% in Ireland and Cyprus and 15% in Spain.

Recommendations

The report proposes a three-tiered approach to address the issue:

• Limiting the progression of soil sealing with improved spatial planning or by reassessing "negative" subsidies that indirectly encourage soil sealing;
• Mitigation actions to reduce damage when soil sealing cannot be avoided. These include using permeable surfaces instead of conventional asphalt or cement and building green roofs.
• Compensation measures to partially offset soil losses in one area by measures taken somewhere else. These may take the form of payments, as in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, or the restoration of already sealed soil. Good practices have been identified notably in Dresden and Vienna.

The results of this report will feed into a Commission technical document on soil sealing, which is being drawn up with the help of national experts. The document will provide national, regional and local authorities with guidance on best practices for limiting soil sealing and mitigating its effects, and should be finalised in early 2012.

Negative effect

Soil sealing causes irreversible losses of the soil’s biological functions, e.g. water can neither infiltrate nor evaporate, and water runoff increases, sometimes leading to catastrophic floods. Landscapes are fragmented and habitats become too small or too isolated to support certain species. In addition, the potential food production of land is lost forever. The Commission's Joint Research Centre estimates that four million tons of wheat is lost every year to soil sealing.  

Many European regions are affected by increasing soil sealing, including half of the Dutch regions, eight provinces in Italy (Vercelli, Lodi, Verona, Piacenza, Parma, Campobasso, Matera, Catanzaro), three French departments (Vendée, Tarn-et-Garonne, Corrèze), the Poznan region in Poland, Western Styria in Austria, the Põhja-Eesti region in Estonia, and the Jugovzhodna region in Slovenia.

The Commission's Soil Thematic Strategy has identified soil degradation, including soil sealing, as a serious problem at the EU level. To protect European soils the Commission presented a proposal for a Soil Framework Directive in 2006, with the support of the European Parliament. However due to opposition from some member states the proposal is currently stalled in the Council.

For more information, see:

Report "Overview of best practices for limiting soil sealing or mitigating its effects in EU-27":

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/sealing.htm, and  

MEMO/06/341 on the Thematic Strategy for soil protection

The Report is presented at the Green Week Conference (25 May 2011):

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/greenweek/index.html

For more information on the Thematic Strategy for soil protection:

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

For more information on the EU policy on soil protection:

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