3.5 — Soil sealing
Consequences and mitigation measures
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How soil sealing impacts soil functions
Soil sealing can lead to a complete and irreversible loss of soil functions and ecosystem services they provide 8,9,10,11. Below you can see examples of some of such effects:
a) By Tdorante10 (Wikimedia), CC BY-SA 4.0. b) By Kjetil Fadnes, NIBIO. c) By Dietmar Rabich (Wikimedia), CC BY-SA 4.0. d) By Skyfoto (Wikimedia), CC BY 4.0.
Although soil sealing has numerous negative consequences, it also can bring certain benefits, such as supporting economic development, enabling the creation of new infrastructures. However, these benefits do not compensate for the often irreversible loss of soil functions and overall land degradation due to soil sealing.