Land degradation in the European Union—Where does the evidence converge?

Abstract

AbstractLand degradation, as a compound of processes that affect land resources worldwide, is notoriously difficult to assess. In Europe, the European Commission has been pressed by the Court of Auditors (ECA) to invest in better understanding land degradation and desertification within the European Union. In the World Atlas of Desertification (WAD), the convergence of evidence (CoE) has been put forward as an integration mechanism to help focus attention on areas where human‐induced global land change issues (LCIs) are putting pressure on the planetary boundaries, potentially leading to land degradation. Rather than trying to map degradation itself, the CoE explores how many of these processes are simultaneously at play and where they occur. In this study, we tailor the CoE framework to the European Union through a more appropriate selection of regionally relevant LCIs and a focus on finer input data. Our analysis draws attention to areas in Europe confronted with specific environmental challenges (e.g., the Po Valley or the Ruhr region) and confirms that LCIs mostly accumulate in croplands and urban areas. We found that more LCIs consistently coincide with a specific Sustainable Development Goal indicator (SDG indicator 15.3.1, calculated using the Trends.Earth tool), signals a degrading status. However, our analysis also shows that many areas with a stable or improving status are subject to LCIs not considered in that indicator. We therefore advise including other indicators of land status and trends when assessing land degradation, while stressing that the link to contextual knowledge remains necessary for a final interpretation.