A data-driven indicator for assessing the evolving impact of the EU Common Agricultural Policy on soil erosion mitigation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an updated model to assess how EU agricultural policies impact soil erosion across Europe.

Contribution

The paper presents an updated data-driven indicator using the latest farm survey data to evaluate CAP's impact on soil erosion.

Findings

The updated LANDUM model incorporates 2023 EU Farm Structure Survey data to track conservation practices.

The model enables tracking of CAP's impact on soil erosion mitigation from 2000 to 2023 at the NUTS2 level.

Findings show trends in how CAP measures reduce water-driven and wind erosion across Europe.

Abstract

The data presented here correspond to the updated LAND Use and Management (LANDUM) model, a core component of the European Commission’s RUSLE-based soil erosion risk assessment framework. LANDUM functions as a data-driven indicator for evaluating the effects of regional land use and agricultural management practices, including measures promoted under the Common Agricultural Policy, on soil erosion intensity at the NUTS2 level within the European Union. The approach relies on spatially explicit estimates of the cover-management (C) factor, a key component of the (R)USLE family of models. In the latest revision presented here, data from the 2023 EU Farm Structure Survey were incorporated to capture the extent of conservation practices such as reduced tillage, the use of cover crops, and the retention of crop residues. These data were processed to assess changes in the C-factor across Europe between 2016 and 2023. Collectively, the four versions of the LANDUM data-driven indicator here reported enable tracking of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) effects, from the no-management, pre-GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition, introduced with the 2003 CAP reform) baseline in 2000 through the years 2010, 2016, and 2023. The insights gained from the data illustrate both overall and regional trends in how soil conservation measures promoted under the EU CAP contribute primarily to the mitigation of water-driven soil erosion, as well as to the reduction of wind erosion and other related soil degradation processes. These data can support further research in soil erosion and related fields and are available for reuse, reprocessing, or integration to enhance modelling applications that incorporate soil cover and management practices as input variables.

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