Soil monitoring on (diffuse) soil contamination Status of soil policy and monitoring – an overview 1 © A. Pehamberger

Contents General aspects and definitions EU soil policy Examples for EU wide soil monitoring systems Key issues for monitoring diffuse soil contamination Soil indicators for diffuse soil contamination Results and recommendations for soil monitoring Proposal for guidelines 2

Soil threats Soil erosion Decline of soil organic matter Soil contamination (diffuse and local) Soil sealing Soil compaction Decline in soil biodiversity Salinisation Floods and Landslides Source: EC Soil Communication,

Diffuse vs. local soil contamination Diffuse soil contamination (d.s.c.) is the presence of a substance or agent in the soil as a result of human activity emitted from moving sources, from sources with a large area, or from many sources (adapted from ISO 11074). Local soil contamination occurs where intensive industrial activities, inadequate waste disposal, mining, military activities or accidents pose a special threat to soil (EEA, 1999). 4

Soil information Soil Mapping: providing information on distribution of soil types and enabling to identify areas of land suitable for certain management purposes; Soil Inventory: providing an assessment of soil conditions and/or properties at a point in time; Soil Monitoring: providing a series of assessments showing how soil conditions and/or properties change over time. 5

EU soil policy development EC Communication ‘Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection’ (2002): Need to develop an EU wide monitoring system with a legislative basis EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (2006): For identifying risk areas, the Commission encourages Member States to use existing monitoring schemes Proposal for Soil Framework Directive (2006): Preservation of soil functions, Prevention of threats to soil and mitigation of their effects, Restoration of degraded soils, No monitoring requirements 6

EU soil policy –requirements SFD Article 9 - Prevention of soil contamination: Member States shall take measures to limit introduction of dangerous substances on or in the soil in order to avoid accumulation that would hamper soil functions or give rise to significant risks to human health or the environment. Industrial Emissions (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) Directive 2010: prevention and control of emissions into soil to avoid any pollution risk, returning the site of IPPC installations to a “satisfactory state”, and periodically monitoring soil on the site (min. every 10 years) 7

ICP Forest level I & BioSoil project 1 st survey: (ICP Forest Level I) 2 nd survey: (Forest Focus Reg.) 16 x 16 km Grid, ~ sites Soil profile description Soil sampling and analyses at fixed soil depth (e.g. Corg, bulk density, heavy metals) Manual for harmonised monitoring 8 Source: De Vos, B. & Cools, N. (2011)

LUCAS 2009 Soil Survey Land Use and Cover Area frame sample Survey Project in co-operation of Eurostat, DG Env. and DG JRC 27 EU Member states 1,2 ; ~ soil samples (top soil, soil quality parameters, heavy metals) 2012: Bulgaria and Romania : Iceland 20xx: next 3 ?, regular monitoring? 9 Source: JRC (2012) ¹ Cyprus has joined the survey on voluntary bases, adopted the same sampling methodology, but LUCAS LC-LU data are missing. ² Malta had difficulties to adjust the sampling grid for the LUCAS standards but samples are already included in LUCAS ³Next LUCAS soil surveys will include CANDIDATE COUNTRIES.

Key issues for monitoring d.s.c. Main diffuse sources: Atmospheric deposition Deposition of contaminants from soil erosion Direct application of substances like pesticides, sewage sludge, fertilisers and manure. Monitoring d.s.c. at risk areas rather than routine grid sampling (results from grid samples are useful to derive background values or reference values) 10 Source: ENVASSO (Huber et al., 2009), TWG Contamination and Land management Vol. VI (Van-Camp, 2004)

Key issues for monitoring d.s.c. Results from monitoring should enable to evaluate the impact of diffuse inputs in relation to other inputs evaluate the future state of the system Frequency and spatial resolution average sampling intervals of 5-20 years cover repetitive areas (land use, climate, geology, soil type, soil management systems), dependent on the scale 11 Source: ENVASSO (Huber et al., 2009), TWG Contamination and Land management Vol. VI (Van-Camp, 2004)

Selected key issues and indicators 12 Source: ENVASSO (Huber et al., 2009)

Data requirements 13 Source: ENVASSO (Huber et al., 2009)

Critical loads exceedances ICP Integrated Monitoring Exceedances of critical loads for acidification and eutrophication Good relationship between critical load exceedances and empirical impact indicators at 18 ICP IM catchments Under emission reductions envisaged for 2020 increase of level of protection is minor. 14 Source: Holmberg et al. (2013) in Ecological indicators

Heavy metals in soils - Austria Exceedances of guideline values acc. to Austrian Standard L

Soil monitoring in SEE ESBN report (2005): Soil resources of Europe. 2 nd edition ESBN workshop (2006, Zagreb): Soil data and soil protection policies in the countries of south-eastern Europe. Conference on Soil Protection Activities and Soil Quality Monitoring in South Eastern Europe (2009, Sarajevo). Key issues: Many soil data are available, but often not digitised Many countries are not part of the European Union, thus participation in project needs other funding schemes 16

Recommendations Soil monitoring should be built on existing systems (EU, national) Follow guidelines at EU and/or national level for setting up a soil monitoring system System design should be implemented in a dynamic and flexible nature (action driven monitoring) Parameter sets should address the requirements for relevant soil indicators, both short term and long term Define and ensure responsibilities for field work, analytical measures and data base maintenance 17

Proposal for guidelines 18 In line with available guidelines for Air and Water I. General introduction II. Guidelines for monitoring diffuse soil contamination A. Linking d.s.c. monitoring to environmental policy development B. Modernizing and upgrading national monitoring networks and information systems C. Improving coordination of national monitoring programmes to d.s.c.

Contact & Information Alexandra Freudenschuß /3691 Sigbert Huber / Umweltbundesamt 13 th session UNECE WGEMA Geneva ■ 1. Nov. 2012

Accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soils Data: Baltic Soil Survey, FOREGS Geochemical Baseline Mapping Programme, EIONET Heavy metal accumulation index calculated. Enrichment of heavy metals in agricultural topsoils compared to subsoils in Europe Definition of topsoils and subsoils important 20

Data requirements Site and profile descriptions Analytical parameters Heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Hg, As, Ni, Cr) Persistent organic pollutants e.g. PAHs, dioxins, PCBs, or pesticides such as HCH, DDT or DDE Nutrients (nitrogen, phosphor) Organic carbon, soil texture, carbonates, pH value Biomass uptake by plants; parent material; critical leaching; actual deposition of nitrogen, sulphur and base cations 21

Identification and Management of Contaminated sites Source: EEA, 2007