Moving Ahead from Assessments to Actions by Using Harmonized Risk Assessment Methodologies for Soil Degradation

Almost all developed countries use risk assessment methodologies (RAMs) for the evaluation of risks related to soil degradation, viz. soil organic matter decline, erosion, landslides, salinization and/or compaction. However and for various reasons, seldom the use of such RAMs seldom results in actual measures to combat soil degradation in practice. In this study the current status of RAMs in EU-27 was evaluated and factors hampering the implementation of action plans were explored. To do so we used a so-called risk assessment chain, which describes the five successive steps of any risk assessment for soil threats viz., (1) notion of the threat, (2) data collection, (3) data processing, (4) …