Soil Contamination

Soil contamination is the occurrence of pollutants in soil above a certain level causing a deterioration or loss of one or more soil functions. Also, Soil Contamination can be considered as the presence of man-made chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. This type of contamination typically arises from the rupture of underground storage tanks, application of pesticides, percolation of contaminated surface water to subsurface strata, leaching of wastes from landfills or direct discharge of industrial wastes to the soil. The most common chemicals involved are petroleum hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, lead and other heavy metals. The occurrence of this phenomenon is correlated with the degree of industrialization and intensity of chemical usage.

At EU-level, the issue of contaminated sites (local contamination) and contaminated land (diffuse contamination) has been considered by:

1. Diffuse soil pollution and heavy metals in topsoils

2. The Indicator "Progress in management of contaminated sites (CSI 015)"

3. National/European approaches.

4. the Joint Research Centre (JRC) with a number of actions

1. Diffuse soil pollution and Heavy Metals in topsoils

Cadmium assessment in EU Topsoils (6/12/2023) : JRC makes available the first pan-European high resolution Cadmium dataset and analyses the reasons for Zn distribution.

Zinc assessment in EU Topsoils (16/6/2023) : JRC makes available the first pan-European high resolution Zinc dataset and analyses the reasons for Zn distribution.

Mercury assessment in EU Topsoils (21/1/2021): JRC makes available the firt pan-European high resolution Mercury dataset and analyses the reasons for Hg distribution.

Copper distirubtion in EU soils (21.5.2018): The LUCAS topsoil samples (21,682 data records) have been analysed for heavy metals. The JRC makes available the first interpolated results (500m resolution) of copper distribution in European Union topsoils. More detailed maps on heavy metals and soil contaminants will become available soon.

Caesium-137 and Plutonium-239+240: Based on LUCAS samples, caesium and plutonium (137Cs, 239Pu, 240Pu) assessment has been concluded for Central part of  Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland).

Maps of heavy metals in the soils of the EU, (19/12/2018) : based on LUCAS 2009 HM data, this dataset contains detailed maps of heavy metals in the EU27 (EU-28 except Croatia), as documented in the article "Maps of heavy metals in the soils of the European Union and proposed priority areas for detailed assessment" by Gergely Tóth, Tamás Hermann, Gábor Szatmári and László Pásztor, in Science of The Total Environment, Volume 565, 15 September 2016, Pages 1054-1062.  Maps for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Mn, Sb, Co and Ni concentrations in European topsoil.

2008 (old obsolete data): For the purpose of research only, the data "Heavy Metals in topsoils" are made available to the public. Download the data for mapping concentrations of eight critical heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, nickel, lead and zinc) using the 1,588 georeferenced topsoil samples from the FOREGS Geochemical database.

2. Indicator "Progress in management of contaminated sites (CSI 015)"

- at the European Environment Agency (EEA) through work around the core set indicator "Progress in management of contaminated sites (CSI 015)" (link to EEA)

- (After 2007) ESDAC and the indicator "Progress in management of contaminated sites" (CSI 015): 

In the context of the development of the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) by JRC, considered as a focal point for soil related data in Europe, it was jointly decided by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Joint Research Centre (JRC) that all soil data management activities carried out by EEA in collaboration with EIONET will be transferred to the JRC. This decision took place at the "EIONET Workshop on Soil" in September 2007 with representatives from DG ENV, EEA and JRC, together with representatives from the EIONET 'National Reference Centres for Soil' and members of the Steering Committee of the 'European Soil Bureau Network'. After the Brussels 2007 EIONET Workshop and a consecutive workshop in 2009, in which data needs by EEA and DG ENV were expressed, and in which a number of actions were planned. ESDAC embarked on two major data collections. One on 'soil organic carbon' and 'soil erosion' in 2009-2010, and one on 'contaminated sites' in 2011-2012, the latter aiming at making an update of the indicator "Progress in management of contaminated sites". 

For the EIONET Data Collection on Contaminated Sites 2011, EIONET countries were asked to provide their updated information on various variables related to contaminated sites, following a questionnaire which was not very different from similar exercises conducted by the EEA before 2007. The draft report of the data collection exercise is used as input to the JRC Reference Report "Progress in the Management of Contaminated Sites in Europe". 

The underlying data for the report are stored in this MS Excel file. Some data/information that arrived at JRC after the data collection deadline (for Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Latvia) are bundled in an additional Zip file. The results of the exercise were also used in a scientific paper: 
Panagos, P., Van Liedekerke, M., Yigini, Y., Montanarella, L. 2013. Contaminated Sites in Europe: Review of the Current Situation Based on Data Collected through a European Network. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, vol. 2013, Article ID 158764, pp 1-11. doi:10.1155/2013/158764.

 

After 2015 the Ad-hoc Working Group on Contaminated Sites and Brownfields (AHWG) was created under EEA's EIONET National Reference Centre on Soil. The AHWG had the mandate to revise the indicator "Progress in the management of contaminated sites" which was now inserted in a new category of EEA Indicators namely "Land and Soil", with code Indicator- LSI003.  The aim of this new category of indicators is to emphasize the importance of soil and land resources and to attract policy attention and the selected indicators are:

  • land take
  • soil moisture
  • imperviousness and imperviousness change
  • organic soil carbon
  • progress in the management of contaminated sites

The revision of the "Progress in the management of contaminated sites" indicator is intended to be included in the State of the Environment Report  SOER2020 by the EEA.

(30 Nov 2018)   In 2017 EIONET countries were asked to provide updated information on various variables related to contaminated sites, following a questionnaire which introduced a new definition of the site status. The data collection exercise was used as input to the JRC Reference Report "Status of local soil contamination in Europe" (2018). The data collected by each country are not totally comparable yet but progress towards a better understanding of the "Progress in the management of contaminated sites in Europe" was made.

The consolidated data of the various questionnaires from 2001 until 2017 are available in this MS Excel file.

3. National/European approaches

- Additional information on National/European approaches can be found in the sites below:

4. Joint Research Centre (JRC) with a number of actions:


 

Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 |

Pesticides residues in European agricultural soils
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Year: 2024
Scale:
Keywords: pesticides |

Cadmium in topsoils of the European Union
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination, Cadmium in topsoils
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Year: 2023
Scale:
Keywords: cadmium |

Zinc concentrations in EU topsoils
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Year: 2023
Scale:
Keywords: soil contamination |

Mercury content in the European Union topsoil
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination, Mercury in topsoils
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Year: 2021
Language: en
Scale:
Keywords: contamination |
Attachments: Image icon Hg distribution

Caesium-137 and Plutonium-239+240 in European topsoils
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination, Plutonium and Cesium inventories in European topsoils
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Country: Italy
Year: 2020
Publisher: European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)
Language: en
Scale:
Keywords: erosion; radionuclides; plutonium |

Maps of heavy metals in the soils of the EU, based on LUCAS 2009 HM data
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Author: Gergely Toth et al.
Year: 2018
Scale:
Keywords: Soil | , soil contamination | , soil pollution | , EU | , HM | , heavy metal | , LUCAS | , 2009 |

Copper distribution in topsoils in the European Union
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Project/s: LUCAS
Registration requested:
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Continent:
Year: 2018
Publisher: Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
Scale:
Keywords: Copper| soil contamination | Cu | Vineyards |

Heavy Metals in topsoils
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Continent:
Year: 2008
Scale:
Keywords: heavy metal | , arsenic | , cadmium | , chromium | , copper | , mercury | , nickel | , lead | , zinc |

Progress in the management of contaminated sites in Europe
Resource Type: Datasets, Soil Threats Data
Theme/Sub-Theme: Soil Contamination
Continent:
Year: 2013
Publisher: European Commission
Scale:
Keywords: Soil | , contamination | , heavy metals | , remmediation |