Literature cited
DIRECTIVE (EU) 2025/2360 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL (2025). Soil Monitoring Law European Environment Agency (EEA) (2021). Land take and land degradation in functional urban areas (No 17/2021) European Environment Agency (EEA). Net land take in cities and commuting zones in Europe. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/net-land-take-in-cities (published 28th November 2025) Joint Research Centre, European Soil Data Centre. https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/themes/soil-sealing (Accessed 18.03.2026) O’Riordan, R., Davies, J., Stevens, C., Quinton, J.N. (2021). The effects of sealing on urban soil carbon and nutrients. SOIL 7: 661–675, doi: 10.5194/soil-7-661-2021 Prokop, G., Jobstmann, H., Schönbauer, A. (2011). Overview of best practices for limiting soil sealing or mitigating its effects in EU-27, doi: 10.2779/15146 Puschmann, O., Eiter, S., Fjellstad, W., Krøgli, S.O. (2018). Preparing future flashbacks – Repeat Photography as a method in landscape monitoring. NIBIO POP 4(24): 6 p. RECARE - Sandra Naumann, Ana Frelih-Larsen, Gundula Prokopp (2018). Policy Brief Soil Sealing and Land take Scalenghe, R., Marsan, F.A. (2009). The anthropogenic sealing of soils in urban areas. Landscape and Urban Planning 90: 1-10, doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2008.10.011 Jannes Stolte, Mehreteab Tesfai, Lillian Øygarden, Sigrun Kværnø, Jacob Keizer, Frank Verheijen, Panos Panagos, Cristiano Ballabio, Rudi Hessel (2015). Soil threats in Europe; EUR 27607 EN, doi:10.2788/488054 (print), doi:10.2788/828742 (online) Summary of Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Framework for Assessment (Island Press, 2003), pp. 1–25. https://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.765.aspx.pdf Tobias. S., Conen, F., Duss, A., Wenzel, L.M., Buser, C., Alewell, C. (2018). Soil sealing and unsealing: State of the art and examples. Land Degrad Dev: 1–10, doi: 10.1002/ldr.2919 USGS. Impervious Surfaces and Flooding. https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/impervious-surfaces-and-flooding#overview (published 5th June 2018)
Tasks
Choose one or more of the following tasks: Compare before and after picture pairs – Look at each of the following picture pairs*. Can you identify sealed areas on the picture pairs and describe the consequences of sealing on soil functions? Share your answers in the forum or in your soil diray. * Information about photographers, location and description of pictures’ content is found here (in Norwegian only) Picture pair 1. Credits: (2009/2022) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Ås, Ås municipality, Norway. Description: An agricultural field replaced partly by a new settlement. Cause: Town development, construction of houses and infrastructures Consequences on soil functions? Picture pair 2. Credits: (2000/2006) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Vinne, Verdal municipality, Norway. Description: Building of new agricultural facilities and buildings. Cause: Modernization of existing farms Consequences for soil functions? Picture pair 3. Credits: (1938) Anders Beer Wilse and (2018) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Kråkstad, Nordre Follo municipality, Norway. Description: Agricultural field and national road 6 in the background. Road was enlarged to highway E18 to accommodate transportation in 1965. Cause: Transportation and infrastructure development Consequences on soil functions? Picture pair 4. Credits: (1884) Axel Lindahl – (2004) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Lærdalsøyri, Lærdal municipality, Norway. Description: Cultural landscape along the Lærdal river. Cause: town development Consequences on soil functions? Picture pair 5. Credits: (2001/2010) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Austefjord, Volda municipality, Norway. Description: Old cart road. Access road to a farm. Cause: the farm uphill was rebuilt. Path was enlarged and modified to accommodate traffic. Consequences on soil functions? Picture pair 6. Credits: (1932) Anders Beer Wilse, (2004) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Åna-Sira, Flekkefjord municipality, Norway. Description: Settlement tied to fishing activity on the Siregrunnen bank. Later continued fishing industry-related activity there. Cause: Town development Consequences on soil functions? Picture pair 7. Credits: (1885) Axel Lindhal, (2004) Oskar Puschmann/NIBIO Location: Geiranger, Stranda municipality, Norway. Description: Fjord landscape, fishing activity disappeared. Today this place is a very popular touristic place. Cause: town and tourism development. Consequences on soil functions? 2. Creative Task – Use the examples of measures that you have learned about and design a simple idea to mitigate soil sealing in your neighbourhood (sketch or short description). Share in the forum or in your soil diary. 3. DIY activity – demonstrate the heat island effect: for this, you need a source of heat (the sun or a lamp, not a LED lamp!), your skin, a patch of vegetation and a patch of hard surface (concrete, tiles, asphalt, glass). Expose the two surfaces to the heat source for 1 minute. Alternatively, reproduce this experiment outside during a sunny day. After one minute, experience the difference in temperature in contact to your skin. You will see that the vegetation-covered patch is cooler than the sealed/hard surface. This will probably bring back some memories of your childhood when you were walking bare feet in your garden/the neighbouring park. 4. Test the powerful technique of repeat photography – apply the technique of repeat photography and document soil sealing around you. We propose two options: 1. Documentation based on historical photographs (online or from archives) and family albums or 2. Documentation for the future. Check out the method for repeat photography HERE. 5. Explore how sealed areas can be re-used: the case of the former Oslo airport at Fornebu (Bærum municipality, Norway). In the web map service of your choice, go to the following location 59° 53′ 48.5″ North, 10° 36′ 51.8″ East or do this at https://kilden.nibio.no, enter “Fornebu”, explore old aerial photographs and the newest version. The airport closed in 1998. What has been done with the old landing/take-off tracks? Inform yourself about changes at the site over the years and try to find a similar case in your area. Share your findings in the forum or in your soil diary. 6. Discover the arts of soil sealing – do you know about any songs, poems, paintings etc. where soil sealing or the effect of soil sealing is reflected? If not, make one yourself. 7. Reflect on the pathways of rainwater – Where and how does the water flow in your everyday surroundings, with or without soil sealing?
Link missing in no. 4
What are the drivers for soil sealing?
Over recent decades, growing wealth and changing lifestyles have increased the demand for built-up land. This has contributed strongly to today’s high standard of living in many European countries – but it has also intensified land take and soil sealing. Think about our modern lifestyle and welfare-based society, but also your everyday life: where you live, how you get around, where you shop, do sports, study, where the energy that charges your phone comes from. All of these activities need space. Housing, roads, industrial areas, parking lots, and infrastructure all require land – and once land is built on, the soil underneath is often sealed. On average, each person today uses more land than in the past; the land use intensity has increased. Homes are larger, cities spread outward, and infrastructure networks expand. This shift has led to increasing urban sprawl.
what is number 5 in the text?
How large is the artificialisation and sealed soil area in Europe?
Are you now curious about the hotspots of soil sealing in Europe? Check out the indicator “soil sealing” on the page of the EUSO Dashboard. Pay attention to different soil sealing levels across countries. What is the status of soil sealing in a European country of your choice?
link is missing?
What are the key ecosystem services lost through soil sealing?
Sealing of soils generally includes the removal of the top horizons of the soil, the addition of brick fragments, metal, concrete and other materials on top of the newly created surface, followed by a layer of asphalt or other impermeable paving materials. Soil sealing, particularly when completely impermeable surfaces like asphalt are used, significantly alters the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil beneath it. Sealing often causes severe, long-lasting, and sometimes irreversible loss of many soil functions, with magnitude depending on sealing intensity, soil removal, and the type of overlying impermeable material. The impermeable layer disconnects the underlying soil (lithosphere) from the air (the atmosphere) and the water cycle (the hydrosphere). Examples of impaired soil functions are the exchange of air, the infiltration of water, the regulation of soil temperature and the cycling of nutrients between those “spheres”. As a result, a range of ecosystem services are affected simultaneously, such as provisioning of food, wood and fibre, groundwater recharge, climate regulation, water purification, flood mitigation, and cultural heritage. Remember that soil sealing can last for a long time, like at this archaeological site in Athens. © Hanne Ugstad, NIBIO
what are the numbers in the text?
When soil becomes sealed: What is sealing all about?
By Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0. You’ve probably noticed sealed surfaces in your surroundings - such as parking lots, buildings, cycle paths, or tennis courts. But have you ever thought about what the soil beneath these surfaces looks like? Before we show you an example, we invite you to take a moment to reflect on what is meant by soil sealing. Would you like to see how soil sealing looks like from below ground in Austria – check this 3D soil profile out! Soil sealing is recognised as one of the major soil threats in Europe. The ongoing trend of increasing urbanisation is a key driver, resulting in land take and the artificial sealing of soils at the expense of functional soils that provide essential ecosystem services. Remember? You learned about ecosystem services in Module 1. For you to understand what soil sealing is, you need to get familiar with closely related concepts. This topic is however only about anthropogenic soil sealing.
All the titles should be capitalised, check the whole course (I corrected some, not all)
Quiz: questions 6-7-8 are too easy, the answers are phrased in a way that the right one is easy to spot.
For the quiz: no. 1 is too easy, there are no explanations