Sediments removal costs

For the entire EU and UK, we provide estimates of sediments removal costs based on three quantification methods: a) Flat rate assignment from modelled sediment delivery b) Regional assignment from modelled sediment delivery c) Sediment remediation costs from extrapolated potential reservoir capacity losses
Resource Type: 
Datasets
Soil Threats Data
Registration is requested: 
No
Year: 
2024
Themes: 
Erosion by water
Erosion by water›Sediment transport using WaTEM/SEDEM
Keywords: 
sediments; costs

Title: Sediments removal costs
Description: For the entire EU and UK, the cost of removing an estimated 135 million m3 of accumulated sediments produced by water erosion is estimated at roughly 2.3 (±0.9) billion € per year. When applying a method that considers all types of soil loss processes, a simplistic extrapolation puts the sediment inputs at an order of magnitude higher (>1 billion m3), but the removal cost (per m3) may be less due to application of less costly techniques in silted dams. With a conservative estimation, the removal of sediments from EU dams may cost at least 5–8 billion € per year..
Spatial Coverage: European Union 28 Member States
Time Reference:  2010
Format: XLS
Input data: Sediment losses data. (You can download the sediment amount distributed in 6,000 catchments)
More Information: Sediment transport using WaTEM/SEDEM
Release Date: 21/3/2024

Soil erosion is both a major driver and consequence of land degradation with significant on-site and off-site costs which are critical to understand and quantify. One major cost of soil erosion originates from the sediments delivered to aquatic systems (e.g., rivers, lakes, and seas), which may generate a broad array of environmental and economic impacts. As part of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) working group on soil erosion, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the existing costs of sediment removal from European Union (EU) catchments due to water erosion. These quantifications combine continental average and regionally explicit sediment accumulation rates with published remediation costs, integrating numerous figures reported in the grey literature. The cost of removing an estimated 135 million m3 of accumulated sediments due to water erosion only is likely exceeding 2.3 billion euro (€) annually in the EU and UK, with large regional differences between countries. Considering the sediment delivered through all soil loss processes (gullies, landslides, quarrying, among others) through extrapolating measured reservoir capacity losses, the sediment accumulation in the circa 5000 EU large reservoirs exceeds 1 billion m3 with a potential cost of removal ranging between 5 and 8 billion € annually. These estimates, although not accounting for already implemented catchment mitigation measures, provide insights into one of the off-site costs of soil erosion at both the continental scale as well as the regional differences in economic burden. The provided estimates contribute to support policies such as the Soil Monitoring Law, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Farm to Fork strategy and the Water Framework Directive.

Reference: Panagos, P., Matthews, F., Patault, E., De Michele, C., Quaranta, E., Bezak, N., Kaffas, K., Patro, E.R., Auel, C., Schleiss, A.J. and Fendrich, A., Liakos, L., Van Eynde, E., Vieira, D., Borrelli, P. 2024. Understanding the cost of soil erosion: An assessment of the sediment removal costs from the reservoirs of the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, 434: 140183.

 

Three different methods of cost estimation:

Sediment removal costs per country using the Continental flat rate assignment for the entire EU  (only water erosion sediments m3 of sediments).

Sediment removal costs per country using the Regional assignment method (only water erosion sediments - 135 Million m3 of sediments).

Sediments removal costs based on Extrapolated potential reservoir capacity losses (all types of erosion processes - > 1 Billion m3 of sediments)

Reference: Panagos, P., Matthews, F., Patault, E., De Michele, C., Quaranta, E., Bezak, N., Kaffas, K., Patro, E.R., Auel, C., Schleiss, A.J. and Fendrich, A., Liakos, L., Van Eynde, E., Vieira, D., Borrelli, P. 2024. Understanding the cost of soil erosion: An assessment of the sediment removal costs from the reservoirs of the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, 434: 140183.

Methods and inputs for estimating sediment remediation costs.

For any problem / question / comment on this dataset, please contact ec-esdac@ec.europa.eu

Notification:

  1. The data provided has been prepared for use by internal research activities in European Soil Data Centre (JRC Ispra) in collaboration with the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) Working group on soil Erosion .
  2. The data were developed for research purposes of the JRC (European Commission). The JRC does not accept any liability whatsoever for any error, missing data or omission in the data, or for any loss or damage arising from its use. The JRC agrees to provide the data free of charge but is not bound to justify the content and values contained in the databases.
  3. The permission to use the data specified above is granted on condition that, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are these data passed to third parties. They can be used for any purpose, including commercial gain.
  4. The user agrees to:
       a) Make proper reference to the source of the data when disseminating the results to which this agreement relates;
       b) Participate in the verification of the data (e.g. by noting and reporting any errors or omissions discovered to the JRC).

 

Reference of source (Citations) :

Panagos, P., Matthews, F., Patault, E., De Michele, C., Quaranta, E., Bezak, N., Kaffas, K., Patro, E.R., Auel, C., Schleiss, A.J. and Fendrich, A., Liakos, L., Van Eynde, E., Vieira, D., Borrelli, P. 2024. Understanding the cost of soil erosion: An assessment of the sediment removal costs from the reservoirs of the European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production, 434: 140183.

When making reference to the ESDAC

  • Panagos, P., Van Liedekerke, M., Borrelli, P., Köninger, J., Ballabio, C., Orgiazzi, A., Lugato, E., Liakos, L., Hervas, J., Jones, A.  Montanarella, L. 2022. European Soil Data Centre 2.0: Soil data and knowledge in support of the EU policies. European Journal of Soil Science, 73(6), e13315. DOI: 10.1111/ejss.13315
  • Panagos P., Van Liedekerke M., Jones A., Montanarella L., “European Soil Data Centre: Response to European policy support and public data requirements”; (2012) Land Use Policy, 29 (2), pp. 329-338. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.07.003
  • European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC), esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu, European Commission, Joint Research Centre