Similarly to its aspirational long-term objective to achieve healthy soils by 2050, and with a view to contributing to the objectives of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 and in particular to the No Net Land Take objective, this Directive also aims to adopt a stepwise approach to the issue of land take. To contribute to that long-term objective, it is important to assess the various processes of land take, and aim to reduce and mitigate their impact on soil health and ecosystem services. This Directive thus aims to set up a soil monitoring framework for the more visible aspects of land take, namely soil sealing and soil removal, using tools already available at Union level through services delivered under the Copernicus component of the Union Space Programme, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Copernicus services), optionally complemented with national remote-sensing data and national inventories. The aim is to have a common understanding with regard to soil sealing and soil removal and to initiate preliminary reflections at national level, based on sound data.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
