Table 1.

Soil threats in Europe

Soil disturbance	Share of affected soil (EC, 2020a)
Contaminated sites	2.8 million potentially (but only 24% are inventoried)
Soil sealed	2.4%
Compaction	23%
Losing carbon	cropland: 0.5% per year;  petlands: 50%
Residual pesticides	83% (21% of agricultural soils with cadmium concentrations above the limit for drinking water; and 6% with heavy metal content potentially unsafe por food production)
Eutrophication	65–75% of agricultural soils
Water erosion	24%
Desertification	25% at high or very high risk