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To date soil is not subject to a comprehensive and coherent set of rules in the European Union. The protection and sustainable use of soil is scattered in different Community policies contributing in various degrees to mainly indirect protection of soil, for example through environmental policies on waste, water, chemicals, industrial pollution prevention, nature protection and biodiversity, nitrates and pesticides, sewage sludge, forestry strategy, climate change adaptation and mitigation, or biofuels. At national level the situation varies a lot from one Member State to the other. Only a few Member States have specific and comprehensive legislation on soil protection, very often national soil legislation is limited to soil contamination and soil sealing. The others rely on provisions on soil protection in the environmental legal acquis. On the basis of non-harmonised national inventories, local soil contamination in the EEA-33[1] plus the 6 cooperating countries has recently been estimated at 2.5 million potentially contaminated sites. About one third of an estimated total of 342 000 contaminated sites in the EEA-33 plus the 6 cooperating countries have already been identified and about 15% of these have been remediated. Soil contamination is very often perceived as a burden by policy and decision makers and as a threat by citizens. For local authorities the remediation effort is often heavy in terms of costs and complexity. However Italy has a number of success stories clearly demonstrating that this challenge can be tackled with determination in cooperation with local partners and city authorities to offer new development opportunities. The remediation of contaminated sites offers clearly a significant potential for green growth and jobs, which are at the centre of the action of the European Commission. With brownfield remediation in south-west Sardinia, Italy presents an innovative approach for the assessment and management of contaminated soils. It allowed the redevelopment of a big portion of the Portoscuso municipality achieving also a high level of stakeholders involvement in the process of risk assessment of groundwater and soil contamination. Porto Marghera (Venice) is another good example of brownfield remediation that limits the loss of land thanks to the engagement of public, private and research institutions.

ROSSI Giuseppe;  SCANAVINI Luca;  D'APRILE Laura;  FERRANDINO Paolo;  PAYA PEREZ Ana; 

2016-07-12

Direttore Editoriale Massimo Viarenghi

JRC101703

2421-2938,   

www.recoverweb.it,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC101703,