Soil security in floodplain and river restoration projects

Abstract

Floodplains and their soils provide a vast range of ecosystem services for nature and humans. At the same time, however, these ecosystems are among the most degraded in the world. During the past decades an increased effort has been made towards the restoration of floodplains and rivers; however, in such projects, soil is often overlooked. To assess the actual status in Germany an online survey has been conducted to investigate the obstacles to soil protection from the restorer's view, and to find ways to better integrate soil protection in such projects. The results show that soil is already present in project planning and implementation, but a special focus is set on pollution. Not all aspects of the soil are equally considered, usually because of financial constraints. Besides the financial aspect, other obstacles include complicated regulations on soil protection in Germany and a lack of soil awareness. There are efficient tools to avoid harmful soil changes on construction sites like the Pedological Construction Supervision (PCS), however, this is often seen as an additional financial and organizational burden. To better integrate soil in restoration projects, a special interest lies on the connectivity component of the Soil Security concept that aims to increase soil awareness of all stakeholders. This is accompanied by planned new soil legislation on soil protection in Germany.