This document summarizes soil contamination issues in Europe based on a 2011 exercise and preliminary results. It estimates that 2.4 million potentially contaminated sites exist in European countries and the Western Balkans, though only around 930,000 have been identified so far. Of the estimated 190,000 contaminated sites, 58,000 have been remediated and 46,000 identified. The main sources of local contamination are waste disposal and treatment (65%) and industrial/commercial activities. The most common contaminants are mineral oils, heavy metals, and chlorinated/polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The document also briefly describes the LUCAS soil survey methodology used to sample and analyze soils across Europe.

1. Towards healthy soils: Is soil contamination a
real issue?
Luca Montanarella
European Commission
DG JRC H.05

2. Contaminated sites

4. Diffuse soil pollution

5. Diffuse soil pollution

6. Preliminary results
2011 exercise
ESDAC, 2012
2.4 million Potentially Contaminated Sites (PCS) are estimated to exist in the EEA countries and
the West Balkan. Considerably lower compared to the data collection in 2006 (3 mio. PCS)
Contaminated sites is estimated to amount to 190,000, which is also considerably lower compared
to the last data collection in 2006, which referred to 250,000 contaminated sites.

7. About 930,000 Potentially
Contaminated Sites are already
identified, which corresponds to
approximately 38 % of the
estimated total.
Absolute numbers with regard to
identified potentially contaminated
sites, contaminated sites and
remediated sites cannot be compared
to those of the last data collection,
since several countries have changed
their classification methodology.
Out of 187,500 Contaminated
sites:
• 58,000 have been remediated
• 46,000 have been identified
• More than 75,000 to be
accessed

8. 00%
05%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Waste
disposal &
treatment
Industrial &
commercial
activities
Storage Others Transport
spills on land
Military Nuclear
operations
Key sources of local contamination [%]
Sources of Local
Contamination
ESDAC, 2012
Waste disposal and treatment, together with industrial and commercial
activities have caused almost two thirds of the local contamination

9. Most Frequent
Contaminants
ESDAC, 2012
Main contaminant categories are mineral oils and heavy metals
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (CHC), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Aromatic Hydrocarbons
(BTEX) follow…..
Distribution hardly changed since 2006!

13. 135 December 2013
Sampling
Photo-Interpretation
Compute statistics
1,000,000 points
235,000 points
Stratum Points
Arable uuuuu
Water xxxxxx
Artificial yyyyyy
Woodland zzzzz
Survey
Ortho-Photos
Image 2000
LUCAS Field Survey: Monitoring Land
Use and Soil Properties
2x2km grid
A EUROPEAN
LAND USE / COVER
AREA FRAME
STATISTICAL SURVEY

14. Reaching the points
About 10% of points are also photo-interpreted
(mountain, isolated points)
LUCAS: Observations on the ground
Observing the features in the field
3
m
40
m

15. 155 December 2013
Selection of point, based on
LUCAS master grid (2 x 2 km),
as a function of:
• country
• land use
• physiography (slope, aspect,
elevation, slope curvature, etc)
10 % = 22,000 ca sampling
points (triplets) selected
- 20,855 soil samples analysed
- Data stored in ESDAC and samples stored in JRC
- Processing of new soil information has started
LUCAS soil survey 2009

16. 16 5 December 2013
http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu

17. http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu

18. 5 December 2013 18
Thank you for your attention