Topics and Regions
My name is Sara, I am a Researcher in the field of sustainability end equality. Interested in European and Italian culture, I am based in the Netherlands.
I signed up to Land Portal because the recent debate around climate change within the public sphere has a lesser known aspect, which is the exploitation of the land.
It is also one of the most alarming issues to address, among those of the environmental crisis: healthy soil contributes to absorb carbon dioxide, and helps our fight against climate change.
Excessive use of fertilizers and machinery alters the structure of the soil and its water retention properties. Without water and nutrients, the soil is no longer vital, and eventually becomes deserted.
Said Mahatma Ghandi:
"To forget how to work the land and take care of the soil is to forget ourselves"
Land take in Europe
In European countries, economic activities, greater mobility and the development of the transport network (buildings, airports, roads, quarries, industrial and commercial infrastructures) have a great impact on land consumption.
It is estimated that 70% of the territory in Europe is compromised due to over-exploitation, which has led to the depletion of nutrients in the subsoil. This phenomenon is not only due to urbanization, but also to pollution and climate change.
Exhausted by over-exploitation, the earth is no longer able to carry out its environmental services. Furthermore, the lost soil takes a long time to regenerate.
Land take in my country, Italy
Land consumption in Italy is monitored by the National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA), which is made up of the ISPRA body, the regional agencies and the bodies of the autonomous provinces.
Land consumption in Italy continues at a worrying pace, as the ISPRA Annual Land Consumption Report shows.
According to the research body, in Italy every day we lose an area equal to fifteen football fields. In 2019, 57 square kilometers of territory were consumed in Italy alone.
The areas that suffer the most damage are the coastal ones, a quarter of which is already cemented. On the coast, the consumption of the subsoil grows with an intensity up to three times greater than in the rest of Italy.
In the meantime, the proposed law on land use has been blocked in Parliament for some time, waiting to be approved.