A Soil Erosion Indicator for Supporting Agricultural, Environmental and Climate Policies in the European Union

Emanuele Lugato,Panos Panagos,Luca Montanarella,Cristiano Ballabio,Simone Scarpa,Pasquale Borrelli,Jean Poesen

doi:10.3390/rs12091365

Abstract

Soil erosion is one of the eight threats in the Soil Thematic Strategy, the main policy instrument dedicated to soil protection in the European Union (EU). During the last decade, soil erosion indicators have been included in monitoring the performance of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study comes five years after the assessment of soil loss by water erosion in the EU [Environmental science & policy 54, 438–447 (2015)], where a soil erosion modelling baseline for 2010 was developed. Here, we present an update of the EU assessment of soil loss by water erosion for the year 2016. The estimated long-term average erosion rate decreased by 0.4% between 2010 and 2016. This small decrease of soil loss was due to a limited increase of applied soil conservation practices and land cover change observed at the EU level. The modelling results suggest that, currently, ca. 25% of the EU land has erosion rates higher than the recommended sustainable threshold (2 t ha−1 yr−1) and more than 6% of agricultural lands suffer from severe erosion (11 t ha−1 yr−1). The results suggest that a more incisive set of measures of soil conservation is needed to mitigate soil erosion across the EU. However, targeted measures are recommendable at regional and national level as soil erosion trends are diverse between countries which show heterogeneous application of conservation practices.

Highlights

The ongoing land degradation processes visible across Europe contribute to raising the question whether policies are effective enough to face current trends [1] and their possible exacerbation due to climate change [2]
The results from this study indicate a slight decrease, both in the mean continental soil loss rate, and in the area affected by severe erosion
The small increase of grass margins (+8.2%) that was observed between the two Land Use and Coverage Area Frame Survey (LUCAS) surveys (2012 and 2015) is expected to further increase due to the greening of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014–2020

Summary

Introduction

The ongoing land degradation processes visible across Europe contribute to raising the question whether policies are effective enough to face current trends [1] and their possible exacerbation due to climate change [2]. The soil governance in the EU has gained increasing importance in recent years, and it is indirectly addressed in different policy areas (agriculture, water, and climate) [3]. In 2006, the European Commission developed a common EU strategy (COM(2006)23) for soil protection including the proposal of a EU Soil Framework Directive. The proposed directive, which would have guided the EU Member States to take actions to prevent soil degradation [4], was withdrawn in 2014 following the lack of agreement between the EU Member States. The Soil Thematic Strategy is the only EU legislation in force that merely concerns soil. With regard to soil erosion, it (a) recognizes soil degradation due to erosion as a major threat for food security and the environment; (b) provides a set of overarching principles and calls for stronger integrated policy and; (c) promotes ‘raising awareness’

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion