Abandoned and contaminated land - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 88

Figure 3.7 Agricultural land losses to urbanization in European countries.

Loss of agricultural land to urbanization affects food production in addition to
other soil deteriorating processes and soil loss due to erosion. Between 1987 and
1992, for example, China lost close to one million hectares of farmland each year
to urbanization and the expansion of roads and industries (Tyler, 1994). A survey in
Michigan showed that the urban area of land increased from 5.2% to 8.4%, while
the share of agricultural land decreased from 74% to 67% of the total between 1992
and 2001 (Schultink, 2010). Schultink listed the areas being adversely affected by
the loss of agricultural land: agricultural services, employment, products, farming
efficiencies, public goods, amenity values, ecosystem values, investment, adjacent land
and self-sufficient critical mass.
The graph in Figure 3.7 shows the estimated loss of agricultural land in 20 Euro-
pean Union countries due to urbanization between 1990 and 2000. Data on the graph
are based on an analysis of CORINE Land Cover Data on Losses of Agricultural Areas
to Urbanization (2013).
The European Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation Project (SoCo,
2007-2009) deals with soil degradation processes and their link to agriculture. In
spite of this, agriculture is not the only cause of soil deterioration, large areas of the
land used for agriculture justify this standpoint.
In addition to the discussion on soil deterioration, the SoCo, project gives instruc-
tions on soil-friendly farming systems and practices (such as conservation agriculture),
soil-friendly tillage practices, soil-friendly farm infrastructure and deals with the
requirements to keep land in good agricultural and environmental condition. In order
to get subsidies, farmers shall comply with the following:

- Already implemented regulations or directives, the so-called Statutory Man-

agement Requirements (SMR, 2013), which cover rules relating to agricultural
production, lands and activities in the areas of environment, public, animal and
plant health, and animal welfare; and

- Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC, 2013 and Angileri

et al., 2011), which concern the issues of soil erosion, soil organic matter, soil
structure, minimum level of maintenance, protection and management of water
and maintaining the total area of permanent pasture.