Soil Pollution in the European Union – an Outlook

Soil pollution in the European Union (EU) is poorly quantified, as a consequence of several years of reduced attention and limited funding on soil research and monitoring. Despite that, thanks to efforts from the scientific community, but also from EUSO and the LUCAS soil module, it was possible to achieve some progress under this topic, which is by far insufficient for the problem at hand. In the anticipation of future policy demands and towards the delineation of a common strategy for tackling this problem, it seemed relevant to describe the limited knowledge and the main uncertainties surrounding soil pollution in the EU. Since only with evidence-based science will it be possible to develop efficient policies, especially in such interdisciplinary subject as soil. This perspective paper, provides our view on the current knowledge on soil pollution at EU scale, by compiling the most updated assessments made at EU scale, identifying important soil pollution drivers, impacts on health and ecosystems, and evaluating current state of knowledge. This work allowed us to infer about the current level of uncertainties and knowledge gaps, and to identify solutions to tackle these through future research and policies. Our suggestions are in line with an increasing investment on Research and Innovation from Member States (MS) at EU level (e.g. Soil Mission), but also more frequent updates of current legislation already tackling pollution, and welcoming the new proposal for a Soil Monitoring Law as an important driver for soil knowledge development and implementation of a European monitoring system.

JRC.D.3 - Land Resources and Supply Chain Assessments