Hi there. The Land Capability for Agriculture (LCA) for Scotland does something like this (http://www.soils-scotland.gov.uk/data/lca250k). The categorisation ranks soils in terms of their suitability for growing 'a range of crops' without specifying what these crops are, and identifies soils that are only suitable for different grassland management uses. The designations are used in policymaking and planning applications for development (e.g. housing, wind farms, forest plantation). Willie Towers at the James Hutton Institute is a good source of information for this.

Hi Philippe

There is a parallel system to that in Scotland for England and Wales.  Local planning committees require an Agricultural Land Capability (ALC)  classification (based on soil constraints and local climate)  and survey when considering applications to allow the conversion of agricultural land  to other uses.  Applications that involve substantial losses of Good or Excellent agricultural land should be rejected or modified.  In practice the socio-politico-economic pressures to permit new housng, new industry or nationally important infrastruture often override  the ALC considerations.

Another parallel is Bhutan, where irrigated rice land ('chhushing') cannot be converted to non- agricultural use without specific clearance and this requires that the soils be examined and assessed for their chhushing quality.  Again, development pressures often prevail over land quality considerations.

I suspect that basically similar considerations apply in a number of territories, including - I think - some German Laender.

Ian

Philippe -

This may not be exactly what you have in mind, but, Ontario Conservation Authorities have delegated responsibility from the province to represent proivincial interests regarding land use planning and natural hazards management pertaining to "...flood plain management, hazardous slopes, Great Lakes shorelines, unstable soils and erosion...".    I thought this might be relevant to the extent that different soil types present different types of natural hazards and are, as a consequence, captured in this authority.

See http://www.conservation-ontario.on.ca/what-we-do/planning-regulations for a basic description an links to other materials.

Hope this is of some use.

John

I think its an eye opener to have a land use policy that accommodates the suilability of land for specific uses. Nigerian land use policy is undergoing reform but never considered this topical issue. I would love to know more about the implications if incoporated in West African context?

Japan has extensive laws that deal with earthquake resistance for building, particularly in relation to liquefaction and other risks such as landslides etc. unfortunately, I don't have any references for you - all info is in Japanese!

Hi Philippe

This is a base of the environmental law for soil protection in Switzerland, though this is restricted to "soil fertility" in a general meaning.

See www.admin.ch, with keyword OSOL.

Cheers

Pascal

Hi Phillipe, Brazil has something similar to Scotland, but it is not exactly a legislation. It concerns good practices only. It is a sort of categorisation where it is set up a suitability for growing a range of crops, or for cattle range or even for soil conservation. It is set up by EMBRAPA, which is the Institution responsible for agriculture and cattle in Brazil. If you google EMBRAPA you will see many interesting aspects regarding this issue.

Best wishes,

Antonio Guerra

In the Indian context, for acquisition of land for Industrial under the provision of various policies and acts, it states "As far as

possible acquisition of agricultural land may be avoided". While there are no specific assessment of soil quality is attached to it but it adopts a general principle to avoid agricultural land...

 Hi Phillipe,

Uruguay passed legislation about soil protection few years ago. The main idea behind it was to avoid the reiteration of the soybean/wheat crop rotation indefinitely. According to the regulation the farmer has to submit a plan for soil use and management every three years (I think) in which he has to established a crop rotation based on the soil capability and limiting soil loss and erosion estimated by a model to estimate the erosion of uruguayan soils . In some cases either because of the rotation or because of the soil type the rotation may include the use of winter pastures (oat, rye grass, lolium etc) as cover crops for erosion protection during winter or for soil recovery.

Uruguay has a soils classification system similar to the US one. Some soils types are more suitable for continuous cropping than others. So the government body that oversees the soils protection programme is entitled to request changes in the plan submitted if it is not suitable for the soil type.

Heavy fines can be imposed for soil erosion, that have to be bear by the owner of the farm, not the tenant.

The legislation has been questioned heavily as very restrictive, and rather difficult to enforce, and there are ongoing discussions to implement some changes.

    Thank you so much for all your input so far. It is very useful.

    I am going to work with a group of students in the Fall, to analyze the information that we find on this topic in this country... I think the best way to convince politician in one country that somebody should be done about soil use that does not respect land suitability, is to show that others have done it somewhere else... 

    If you have anything that is even remotely connected, don't hesitate to share with us... and to attach documents if you have any...

    Thanks again!

Sorry my last message was full of typos. I am not sure how it goes from what I write to that... Mysteries of cyberspace... Anyway, here it is again, without the typos.

Thank you so much for all your input so far. It is very useful.

    I am going to work with a group of students in the Fall, to analyze the information that we find on this topic in Uruguay, Denmark, Scotland, and a number of other countries... I think the best way to convince politicians in one country that something should be done about soil use that does not respect land suitability, is to show that others have done it successfully somewhere else... 

    If you have anything that is even remotely connected, don't hesitate to share with us... and to attach documents if you have them...

    Thanks again!

Hi Philippe,

In Belghium regulations on soils are the responsability of the regions. Flanders does have regulations to protect soils against erosion. As far as I know the functions of a soil are, as such, not protected/regulated by legislation but I am not sure about that. All information is on the web and you could start at:

http://www.lne.be/themas/bodem/erosie/erosiecoordinatoren

All information is in Dutch, that might be a problem...

Kind regards,

Gerard

Hi Philippe,

In France like in most countries national law requires to protect land use for environmental reasons but do not take into account agricultural values.  At the next level, making land use plans is a competence of local governments.

Poland has restrictions related to the agricultural value of soils, aiming to avoid the consumption of high quality soils for urbanization.  A good specialist is Anna Bielska, university of technology Warsaw: [email protected]

Kind regards

Anna Geppert

I agree with Anna Geppert - about Poland - a good specialist is Anna Bielska, university of technology Warsaw: [email protected]. She is also on Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Bielska

probably Germany has a legislation that consider Land capability.For sure in Germany there is a legislation that take in account a preventive enivronmental compensation for land uses

Luisa,

     What about Italy? Do you have any similar legislation in your country?

     If you know someone in Germany who could provide information, that would be very useful... Thanks!

Hi,

there is no national or European (EU) legislation yet. There is a big discussion at European level on the matter and many studies have been done. The European Union seems to be oriented to approve a directive on soil protection and/or land capabilty in the next period.

In Italy, at present, only two regions (Lombardia -legge regionale numero 31/2014 and Toscana) approved laws on lad taking but they are oriented to stop land taking/land consumption to avoud urban sprawl and recover/reuse abandoned or polluted urban areas and to avoid agricultural land takind (protecting agricultural areas).

There is  a national law proposal (under discussion) on the same issue: protecting agricultural areas from land taking

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52012DC0046

Hi,

In Germany, the Federal Soil Protection Act and Ordinance states that its purpose is to protect the “natural soil functions”, rather than simply “the soil”.

Also, the German tax authority estimates the potential maximum yield for a field (i. e. the "soil quality") and the higher the potential, the more tax the farmer has to pay. E. g. for a deep chernozem the taxation is much higher than for a shallow leptosol. In the 5th edition of the German soil mapping manual (KA5), we have a system that takes into account the texture, the formation of the substrate, and the condition of the soil (i.e. depth, carbonate and Corg content,...) and then rates the soil with a number between 7-100, where 100 corresponds to a deep and fertile chernozem made of loess and 7 would be a very sandy, shallow and strongly weathered soil.

Unfortunately, the only links I could give you are all in German (i.e. http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bodsch_tzg_2008/anlage_1.html). Hope this info is usefull anyways.

Have a nice day

Vincent

Thank you so much for this information!

    Philippe