European Soil Partnership (ESP) meeting - March 20-21, 2018, Rome FAO HQ, Italy

1. State and Outlook of the
Environment Report
SOER 2020
Rainer Baritz
European Environment Agency (EEA)

2. ‘The task of the Agency shall be […]
to publish a report on the state of,
trends in, and prospects for the
environment every five years
supplemented by indicator reports
focusing upon specific issues.’
Article 2(h)
What?
The provision of reliable, relevant,
targeted and timely information to
policy-making agents and the public.

3. Regulation No 1210/1990 (amended No 401/2009)...
on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and
the European Environment Information and
Observation Network (EIONET)

4. The EEA and Eionet model
1800 experts (39 countries, > 400 national institutions)
N = 39 NFPsN = 6 ETCs
N = 24 NRCs
ETC Urban, land and Soil Systems (ULS)

5. Status of the European Environment reporting
(SOERs) in support to EU environmental policies
1995
1999
2005
2015
2010
5th EAP (1993-2002) Towards sustainability
Support to final evaluation of 6th EAP (2002-2012), framing of 7th EAP
7th EAP (2013-2020) Living well within the limits of our
planet
8 EAPSupport to evaluation of 7th EAP and framing of a possible 8th EAP
2020
Support to final evaluation of 5th EAP, framing 6th EAP
Support to mid-term evaluation of 6th EAP
SOER

6. SOER 2015 outcomes
Notable progress on efficiency but multiple challenges with
ecosystem resilience and human well-being. The long-term
outlook is worrying.
Protecting, conserving
and enhancing natural capital
Resource efficiency
and the low-carbon
economy
Safeguarding from
environmental risks to
health
Past
(5–10)
year
trends
Improving trends dominate
Trends show mixed picture
Deteriorating trends dominate
20+
years
outlook
/

7. SOER 2020 Integrated State of the Environment Assessment structure
Biodiversity&nature
Freshwater
LandandSoil
Marine
Climatechange
Airpollution
Noise
Wasteandresources
Sectors
Themes
Setting the scene
integrated assesments from a thematic (chapters 3 – 12)
and sectoral perspective (chapters 13 & 14)
Summary assessment of progress to 7EAP objectives
(chapter 15)
Systems perspective (chapter 16)
Sustainability challenges and
prospects (chapter 17, 18 & 19)
Europe‘s long-term sustainability
goals and challenges
7EAP
Policy context
(chapters 1 & 2)
Chemicalspollution
Industrialpollution
Fisheries & aquaculture
Forestry
Agriculture
Energy
Transport
Industry
Environmental and climate trends Sustainability prospects
Bio-
economy
Low carbon
economy
Circular
economy
Part 1 (30 p)
Part 2 (180 p)
Part 3 (80 p)

8. SOER 2020 Roadmap

9. 3. Policy
context:
Thematic assessment Land and Soil
2. Scope:
4. Key trends:
Driving forces and pressures on lands: soil degradation
processes such as soil contamination, soil compaction
soil erosion, soil acidification and loss of soil organic
carbon
7th EAP objectives of sustainable land management
and the promotion of no net land take by 2050, SDG,
UN resolution on soil pollution, Minamata etc.
• Environmental impacts
• Economical perspective
• Outlook
5. Responses and proepects for meeting targets and objectives:
1. Thematic summary:

10. Policy Contami
nation
Content Medium
WFD/
Ground-
water
Diffuse
(local)
lists pollutants and thresholds; water
monitoring; local sources if polluting
water bodies
state, water bodies
Sewage
sludge
diffuse limits for heavy metals in sludge applied material
IED/IPPC local Inventories of industrial operations
(emitting SO2, NOx, dust); monitoring
critical limits of soils,
remediation
NEC diffuse Emission ceilings for acidifying
substances
Select representative (soil) sites,
monitoring
acidification,
eutrophication of
natural and nature-
close ecosystems
Resource
efficiency
local /
diffuse
inventory of contaminated sites; remediate; reduce
erosion, increase SOC
Mercury local facilities which emit Mercury (on soils);
inventory
remediate
2. Policy context Soil:

11. 2. Policy context Soil:
Soil is very weak on targets/objectives
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Previous targets
New targets
Previous objectives
New objectives

12. 3. Key trends: Soils
Soil functioning,
ecosystems services
State and trend
Soil
threats
 Pollutants in soils accumulating
(fertilizer/ Cd, pesticides, industrial
pollutants)
 Eutrophication: N and P cycles
 Nutrient loss (acidification)?
 SOC gains? GHG : role of organic soils
 Erosion: actual erosion risk; trends?
 Role of compaction under-assessed
and under estimated
 Metals in harvest
products
 Human exposure
 Cost of prevention,
remediation
 Responses of soil biota
Impacts

13. How to collect information?
LUCAS Soil
2009/2015
Impact
State/Trend
JRC
Countries
Eionet/NRC Soil
Erosion modelling
UNECE ICP Forests
Level I/II and Biosoil
Research
Other national
activities
INSII members
in Europe
Soil function research
Vulnerability to climate change
Soil pollution
GEMAS
EGS
ETC/ULS

14. Next Steps
EEA: storylines in detail: 04/2018
NRC Soil: Collection of study cases: 07/2018
JRC and ETC/ULS: Preparation of inputs
Writing phase 06-09/2018
SOER input Extended report

15. rainer.baritz@eea.europa.eu