Abandoned and contaminated land - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 89

The risk of soil deterioration in Europe is also shown on maps based on the creation
of logical connections between relevant soil parameters called pedotransfer rules. The
input parameters for these pedotransfer rules are taken from the attributes of the
European Soil Database (European Soil Portal, 2013).
Soil deterioration maps such as soil sealing, erosion, loss of organic matter, decline
in biodiversity, compaction, hydro-geological risks, salinization are available in the
Soil Atlas of Europe (2005). The maps on contamination due to pesticides and mining
activities are under preparation.
Relationships between climate and soils are summarized in the brochure of “Soil -
the hidden part of the climate cycle'' (2013). Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar
Region (2009) underlines the importance and role of northern soils in climate change.
Soil degradation and the quality of water bodies are in close relationship. The
adverse impact of erosion and contamination is well known, but sealing, compaction,
loss in biodiversity and landslides are emerging soil problems seriously deteriorating
water quality. To fulfill the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, the Mem-
ber States of the European Union took some measures against soil deterioration to
achieve good water quality (EC Evaluation, 2007).

5 SOME EUROPEAN FACTS

During the last 30 years 80,000 contaminated sites have been cleaned up in the Euro-
pean countries. This is a large number, but few when compared with the estimated
number of (potentially) contaminated sites (EEA, 2007):

- 246,000 contaminated sites;

- 1,824,000 potentially contaminated sites;

- 2,965,000 sites with potentially contaminating activities where investigation is

needed to establish whether remediation is required.

The annual expenditure for the management of contaminated sites in Europe var-
ied between 0.01‰ and 3.0‰ of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005-2006
(Figure 3.8), but on average it was only 0.7‰ of the national GDP. At the EU level,
the rehabilitation of industrial sites has been funded through the framework of the
Structural Funds using a budget of

2,250 million for the EU25 for the period 2000-
2006, i.e. 1% of the total fund of 215 billion (ENEA, 2006; Fiedler & Artim, 2006).
The total expenditure including national funds is about twice as much:

a

12 per capita.
60% of the funds was used for the remediation of a small number of sites and 40%
for assessment of a larger number of sites (EEA, 2007).
The investment is not proportional to the necessary amount needed to significantly
reduce contaminated land problem in Europe, and thus the number of the suspected
sites is continuously growing. Another cause of the growth may be that the previous
lists were not complete or have been expanded by the emerging new types of activi-
ties and chemicals. Poor achievement of remediation targets might be the consequence
of inefficient use of funds (e.g., insufficient use of preventive measures and risk-based
remedial targets), financing and applying undue, costly management options and reme-
diation alternatives, applying not the best available and verified technologies, refusing
soft and cheap biological and ecological remedial technologies and natural attenuation.

a