Soil

Soils are fundamental to our understanding of environmental interactions between air, land and water. They are key to supporting habitats and ecosystems, and for protecting archaeological resources. At a UK level, consideration is being given to a programme of monitoring across all Devolved Adminstrations, to inform future soils policy development. Emerging work areas are:

• EU Soil Framework Directive - A key statutory driver
• Soil Carbon Storage - Critical to mitigating climate change, especially in terms of peatland soils.

Managing diffuse pollution and run off is vital to achieving Water Framework Directive and Flood Directive objectives.