What are the drivers for soil sealing?

Forum task: Reflection on Sealed Soils

Choose one or more of the following tasks:

1. Visit the European Environment Agency’s website Land take and Net Land Take dashboard. Browse the content by country, time period, administrative unit, and take processes, etc. Get an impression of the geographical variation of land take across Europe as well as the drivers of land take and soil sealing across space and time.

2. In the web map service of your choice, go to the two following locations (1. 59° 00′ 16.6″ North 5° 43′ 01.4″ East in Stavanger municipality, Norway and 2. 36°51'02" North 2°24'03" West, Almeria, Spain). Examine the types of impermeable layer in the vicinity of these 2 locations as well as land use and sealed area extent. Discuss the pros and cons of soil sealing in these cases while addressing the various ecosystem services mentioned in the 2005 Millenium Ecosystem Assessment report.

3. Reflect on how your lifestyle (housing, commuting and travel routines, free time activities, etc.) “consumes” land. How much land is it reasonable for you to “consume”? Discuss your thoughts with fellow students or colleagues, friends or family members, or write them down in your soil diary.

4. Reflection question: For which purposes are the societal gain greater from sealing land than not to? How much soil are we willing to seal for which purpose – e.g. in the context of a climate-smart society? Share your thoughts in the 🗨 Forum category → Reflection on Sealed Soils or your soil diary.

5. Look at the pair of pictures below. Reflect on the consequences of not consuming all this land: smaller schools, fewer areas built down for installation of renewable energy plants, higher need for other (non-renewable energy) sources, fewer data centres, less capacity for data traffic and AI-development. Share your input in the forum or in your soil diary.