WORLD> Europe
Experts warn of careless use of soil
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-28 08:56

VIENNA-- On the third day of the international conference EUROSOIL 2008, which held from August 25 to August 29 in Vienna, experts warned of the careless use of soil, saying not only crude oil and food, but also the soil on our planet would be in short supply.

President of the European Confederation of Soil Science Societies (ECSSS), also the organizer of the EUROSOIL 2008, Winfried E. H. Blum said to the local media that in the whole Europe, an area of about a village-large of soil disappears every day.

In Austria, there would be 12 to 15 hectares of land which for agricultural use being erased from the map everyday.

The situation of Austria's neighbor countries is almost the same. Switzerland loses daily about 8 to 10 hectares and Germany even uses about 110 to 120 hectares everyday for the construction of streets, houses or other buildings.

Meanwhile, the need for the agricultural soil was increasing, due to the rising population by about 85 million annually.

Blum therefore called for careful use of agricultural soil, since the global trend of soil shortage could hardly be turn around. He emphasized also the important approach of prohibiting a further urban sprawl of the landscape.

The EUROSOIL 2008 was in co-operation between the soil science societies of Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. It would comprise about 30 symposia, 4 workshops and numerous 1 to 3 day excursions in Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Europe.