Soil security has emerged during the recent years as a new paradigm for addressing sustainable soil management. Soil security was first presented in the literature in 2013–2014 (Koch et al., 2013; McBratney et al., 2014). Both publications defined soil security as the maintenance and improvement of the world's soil resources so that they can continue to provide food and fresh water, make major contributions to energy and climate sustainability, and help maintaining biodiversity and the overall protection of ecosystem goods and services. After the first publications on soil security, some regional studies addressed the subject in Australia (Bennett et al., 2019) and Tasmania (Kidd et al., 2018). Meanwhile, soil security starts to gain the momentum as it is linked to crop production and global climate (Beerling et al., 2018), soil contamination and human health (Carre et al., 2017; Brevik et al., 2017), farming and ecosystem services (Dazzi et al., 2019) and with the Sustainable Development Goals (Bouma, 2020).
Therefore, soil security is developed as a concept in analogy with the other six existential global environmental challenges (e.g. provision of food, fresh water, energy, climate sustainability, maintenance of biodiversity, protection of ecosystem goods and services). Soil security is described by five dimensions known as 5Cs: soil Capability, Condition, Capital, Connectivity & Codification (Koch et al., 2013; McBratney et al., 2014). Here, we discuss the implications of soil security for the European Union's sustainability.
Link: 10.1016/j.soisec.2021.100009
