Knowledge and data

This EU agency provides independent information on the environment and regularly compiles European data on soil and land. Below are some relevant reports: 

1. EEA Signals 2021 — Europe’s nature (2021)
2. EEA SIGNALS 2020 - Towards zero pollution in Europe (2020)
3. The European environment - state and outlook 2020 (2019)
4. EEA SIGNALS 2019 - Land and soil in Europe (2019)
5. Climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector in Europe (2019)
6. Landscapes in transition — An account of 25 years of land cover change in Europe (2017)
7. The direct and indirect impacts of EU policies on land (2016)

1. Pilot project to evaluate and address the presence of lindane and HCH in the EU (Tauw, 2022)
   
   The main project deliverable was to compile an inventory for sites that may have been affected by HCH. The sites in this inventory include lindane and HCH production and processing sites, waste deposits and landfills, storage facilities and waste treatment plants. For each EU Member State, a report featuring a country-specific list of such sites was prepared. Other deliverables are a report about the use and legacy of HCH in the EU, and support in developing an EU-wide strategy for sustainably managing HCH impacted sites.
    
   • Project summary
   • The use and legacy of HCH in the EU (A guide to identify potentially HCH impacted sites)
   • Outline of a strategy to resolve the legacy of lindane production in the EU
   • Summary report EU wide inventory 
   • (AT,BE,BG,CY,CZ,DE,DK,EE,EL,ES,FI,FR,HR,HU,IE,IT,LT,LU,LV,MT,NL,PL,PT,RO,SE,SI,SK)
   • Inventory of sites that are potentially impacted by HCH in EU Member States (map)
2. Providing support in relation to the implementation of soil and land-related Sustainable Development Goals at EU level (Wageningen Environmental Research, 2019)
   
   This project aimed to analyse the state of play of the implementation of land and soil-related SDGs in the EU and to compile and communicate good practices and provide recommendations for the implementation of land- and soil-related SDGs in the EU.
   
   The conference: Soil and the SDGs - Challenges and need for action was also organised and took place in November 2019.
    
   • Final report of the project
   • Executive summary of the project
   • Conference report
   • Achieving land and soil related sustainable development goals in Europe (brochure, 2020) ES DE FR
3. Soils4EU: Providing support in relation to the implementation of the EU Soil Thematic Strategy (Deltares, 2019)
   
   This study aimed to give insight into many aspects of soil management or land management by producing six in-depth reports that provide scientific background on a range of soil and soil policy-related issues in Europe and three policy briefs:
    
   • Drivers and transboundary impacts of soil degradation
   • Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services – Soil ecosystems
   • Review of economic, social and environmental impacts of and implementation barriers for soil protection and sustainable management measures for arable land across the EU
   • Identification of priority areas for improving consistency and inter-operability of EU-wide and national soil monitoring and information systems
   • The impact of soil degradation on human health
   • Potential of Earth Observation for improved soil monitoring
   • Policy Brief - Sustainable soil management
   • Policy Brief - Soil quality in spatial planning
   • Policy Brief - Integrated soil and land policy for Europe
4. Inventory and Assessment of Soil Protection Policy Instruments in EU Member States (Ecologic Institute, 2017)

This project aimed to take stock of existing soil protection policies and measures at the EU and Member State level. An online inventory of soil protection policy instruments (the Soil Wiki) has been developed. The Soil Wiki was compiled as an internal working tool to provide an overview of soil relevant policy instruments at EU level and the European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study.

See older studies on soil

1. Agriresearch factsheet SOILS (EC 2019)
2. EJP SOIL (2020-2025): Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils.
   To enhance the contribution of agricultural soils to key societal challenges such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, sustainable agricultural production, ecosystem services provision and prevention and restoration of land and soil degradation.
3. EXCALIBUR (2019-2024): Exploiting the multifunctional potential of belowground biodiversity in horticultural farming.
4. SOILDIVERAGRO (2019-2024): Soil biodiversity enhancement in European agroecosystems to promote their stability and resilience by external inputs reduction and crop performance increase.
5. RELACS (2018-2022): ‘Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems’ (RELACS) To foster the development and facilitate the adoption of cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies, to phase out the dependency on and use of inputs considered contentious in organic farming systems.
6. DIVERFARMING (2017-2022): Crop diversification and low-input farming cross Europe: from practitioners' engagement and ecosystems services to increased revenues and value chain organisation.
7. BEST4SOIL (2018-2021): Boosting 4 BEST practices for SOIL health in Europe.
8. SOILCARE (2016-2021): Soil care for profitable and sustainable crop production in Europe.
   To identify and evaluate promising soil-improving cropping systems and agronomic techniques, increasing profitability and sustainability across scales in Europe.
9. CIRCASA (2017-2020): Coordination of International Research Cooperation on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture. To strengthen the coordination and synergies in European and global research on Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) sequestration in agricultural soils.
10. iSQAPER (2015-2020): good Agricultural Management Practices lead to better soil quality.
11. RECARE (2013-2018): Preventing and Remediating degradation of soils in Europe through Land Care. To develop effective prevention, remediation and restoration measures using an innovative trans-disciplinary approach, actively integrating and advancing knowledge of stakeholders and scientists in 17 case studies covering a range of soil threats.

• Soil Data Maps (JRC, European Commission)
• EUROPEAN SOIL DATA CENTRE (ESDAC) is the thematic centre for soil-related data in Europe. Its ambition is to be the single reference point for and to host all relevant soil data and information at European level. A web-based map viewer is available.
• Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS): Eurostat has carried out this survey every 3 years since 2006 to identify changes in the European Union in land use and land cover. The latest published LUCAS survey dates from 2018. It provides observations at more than 330.000 points surveyed in the EU Member States that are the basis for statistical report. Soil data are collected and analysed through the LUCAS Soil Module for a range of chemical, physical and biological parameters. The results are available from ESDAC for around 22,000 LUCAS points.
• EUROSTAT: Environmental Data Centre on Natural Resources - Land and soils. Presenting several thematic indicators on land and soils.
• Land take viewer: providing a set of dashboards giving an overview of the land take and net land take processes for Europe derived from the Corine land cover data series.
• Imperviousness viewer: providing accounts of land surface sealing status and change in Europe for every 3 years between 2006 and 2015, measured by the high resolution Copernicus imperviousness datasets.
• Inventory of sites that are potentially impacted by HCH in EU member states.