soil erosion in europe - esdac...this results in loss of soil fertility, carbon and biodiversity,...

Contact

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc

© E

uro

pe

an U

nio

n,

20

15

Pasquale Borrelli, Panos Panagos, Cristiano Ballabio, Emanuele Lugato, Luca Montanarella

Soil Erosion in Europe

Dr. Pasquale BORRELLI

European Commission • Joint Research Centre

IES • Land Resource Management Unit

Tel. +39 (0332) 789072 • Email:

pasquale.borrelli@jrc.ec.europa.eu

Soil degradation is a serious problem in Europe. It is driven or exacerbated by human activity such as inadequate agricultural and forestry practices, industrial activities, tourism, urban

and industrial sprawl and construction works. These activities have a negative impact, preventing the soil from performing its broad range of functions and services to humans and

ecosystems. This results in loss of soil fertility, carbon and biodiversity, lower water-retention capacity, disruption of gas and nutrient cycles and reduced degradation of contaminants. In

the Communication of the European Commission entitled ‘Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection’ (COM(2006) 231) 8 main threats to soil were identified. The information

presented here give a brief overview of the results archived on soil erosion (i.e., first threat).

CONTAMINATION ORGANIC MATTER LOSS BIODIVERSITY LOSS COMPACTION SALINISATION FLOODS-LANDSLIDES SEALING

Activities of the Joint Research Centre's 'Soil Degradation by Erosion Research Group' 2013-2015

LAND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO WIND EROSION WIND EROSION SUSCEPTIBILITY OF AGRICULTURAL LAND

RAINFALL EROSIVITY IN EUROPE COVER-MANAGEMENT FACTORQUANTITATIVE ESTIMATION OF SOIL LOSS

FIRST FOREST HARVESTING MAP FIRST COMPREHENSIVE FOREST SOIL LOSS MAP

MAP

Contact :

25m MAP OF FOREST HARVESTING AND SOIL LOSS IN ITALY

25m MAP OF SOIL AND CARBON LOSS IN AGRICULTURAL LAND

PIL

OT S

TU

DIE

S

WA

TER

ER

OSIO

NFO

REST L

AN

D

Future Research?

Think European, Act Global!

References:

Panagos P, Borrelli B, Robinson D.A. (2015a). Common

Agricultural Policy: Tackling soil loss across Europe. Nature,

526, 195-195.

Borrelli P, Panagos P, Ballabio C, et al. (2014a) Towards a pan-

European assessment of land susceptibility to wind erosion. Land

Degradation & Development, DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2318

Borrelli P, Ballabio C, Panagos P, Montanarella L (2014b) Wind

erosion susceptibility of European soils. Geoderma 232: 471–478.

Borrelli P, Panagos P, Montanarella L (2015a) New insights into

the geography of wind erosion in the European agricultural land.

Introduction and application of a spatially explicit indicator of land

susceptibility to wind erosion. Sustainability, 7, 8823-8836.

Borrelli P, Panagos P, Langhammer J, Apostol B, Schütt B (2015b)

Assessment of the cover changes and the soil loss potential in

European forestland: First approach to derive indicators to capture

the ecological impacts on soil-related forest ecosystems.

Ecological Indicators, 60, 1208–1220.

Borrelli P, Panagos P, et al. (2015c) Effect of Good Agricultural and

Environmental Conditions on erosion and soil organic carbon

balance: A national case study. Land Use Policy, in press.

Borrelli P, Panagos P, et al. (2015d) Assessment of clear-cutting

impacts on soil erosion in the Italian forests: First comprehensive

monitoring and modelling approach. Submitted paper.

Panagos P, Meusburger K, Ballabio C, Borrelli P, Alewell C. (2014).

Soil erodibility in Europe: A high-resolution dataset based on

LUCAS. Science of the total environment, 479, 189-200.

Panagos P, Borrelli P, Poesen P, et al. (2015b). The new assessment

of soil loss by water erosion in Europe. Environmental Science &

Policy, 54, 438-447.

Panagos P, Ballabio C, Borrelli P, et al. (2015c). Rainfall erosivity in

Europe. Science of the Total Environment, 511, 801-814.

Panagos P, Borrelli P, et al. (2015d). Estimating the soil erosion

cover-management factor at European scale. Land Use Policy, 48,

38-50.

Pan

ag

os

et

al.,

2015c

Pan

ag

os

et

al.,

2015a

Bo

rrelliet

al.,

2015b

Bo

rrelliet

al.,

2015b

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2015c

Pan

ag

os

et

al.,

2015d

EROSION

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2015d

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2015d

WIN

D E

RO

SIO

N

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2014a

Bo

rrelliet

al.,

2015a

Pan

ag

os

et

al.,

2015b

SOIL ERODIBILITY IN EUROPE

Pan

ag

os

et

al.,

2014

WIND EROSION SUSCEPTIBILITY OF EUROPEAN SOILS NUMBER OF EROSIVE DAYS

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2014b

Bo

rrelli et

al.,

2014a

Dr. Panos PANAGOS

European Commission • Joint Research Centre

IES • Land Resource Management Unit

Tel. +39 (0332) 785574 • Email:

panos.panagos@jrc.ec.europa.eu

Contact :