Towards a better characterisation of land degradation and desertification in the European Union

This document describes the application of the methodology to characterise land degradation and desertification to continental European Union, using elements from the EU Soil Observatory Soil Degradation Dashboard as a proxy for soil degradation. Applying the methodology results in drylands currently covering 15% of the EU (611 000 km2), an area twice the size of Italy. As expected, southwestern, southern and southeastern Member States are most affected. 

Consequently, desertification affects 530 000 km2 (86.56%) of this area (equivalent to around 12% of the EU territory) with implications for around 42 million people. The highest percentage of land under desertification conditions was observed in Spain (53%), Cyprus (45%) and Greece (36%). A further 1 004 608 km2 of the EU is flagged as being at elevated risk of desertification based on future scenarios for the Aridity Index (2021-2040). Many of these areas are outside the region currently considered as drylands. Among the Member States (MS) land with at least one aspect of degradation accounted for the largest share of area in all cases, ranging from 72.74% 11% in Spain, 73.31 in Slovenia, to 6.16% in Hungary.