Background

European legislation offers increasing protection from pollution for soil and groundwater. The Water Framework Directive has expanded protection of water from watercourses to entire catchments, including groundwater. Soils are protected under the Landfill Directive, the Directive on Nitrate Pollution from Agricultural Sources, the Habitat Directive, and others.

European Research Effort

Much research over the past years has been related to the remediation of contaminated sites. In this area, the implementation, demonstration and evaluation of developed technologies and approaches is now the first priority. Over the last few years the integration of soil remediation into site development and brownfield redevelopment has also been an area of research. The integration of soil remediation in urban planning is an important goal.

In the mid term and long term the focus of research will be on soil quality management and sustainable soil use related to the (re)development of rural and urban areas. The research agenda identified by the Research TWG follows that development.

Most of the formulated research needs in the former or existing networks concern the remediation of contaminated sites. A future development in this area is that, as remediation progresses, attention to soil protection, to prevent new contamination, will increase. At the same time long term remediation processes, like natural attenuation, will increase attention on soil monitoring and quality management.

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