Towards Harmonized Soil Monitoring in the EU: An Inventory of Existing International and European Standards
The directive on soil monitoring and resilience (Soil Monitoring Law) was included in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU 2025/2360) on November 26th, 20225. After water and air, this Directive puts forward the first EU legislation on the soil environmental compartment. The directive establishes a harmonised soil monitoring framework for assessing the health of soils throughout the EU. A harmonised approach implies that standards become important to ensure intercomparability among, and within, Member States. The directive prescribes reference methodologies and requires transfer functions for other methods. The Directive also includes some standards for the monitoring and measuring of soil descriptors based on those being used through the LUCAS topsoil surveys from 2009 to 2022. The present technical report provides an inventory of 574 soil-related standards from international and European standard bodies including the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), as well as standards from other well-recognised international institutions including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-GLOSOLAN). There is a need for harmonisation of soil-related standards to ensure consistency and comparability of soil data and to support effective soil management and protection efforts.
YUNTA Felipe;
VAN EYNDE Elise;
PANAGOS Panos;
JONES Arwyn;
2026-02-06
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC144540
978-92-68-37237-1 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40630,
OP KJ-01-26-056-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC144540,
10.2760/4452523 (online),
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