Soil protection in Austria

• Published in: Journal of soils and sediments 2003, Vol.3 (4), p.245-246
• Main Authors: Blum, Winfried E. H., Gerzabek, Martin H., Schwarz, Sigrid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1439-0108; 1614-7480
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02988672

The total land surface of the Republic of Austria comprises about 84,000 km super(2). By federal constitution, soil issues are dealt with by the 9 counties (Laender), which are responsible for the protection of their soils. Because of considerable differences in soil survey and soil analytical procedures in these 9 counties, which did not allow the comparison of soil data within the Republic of Austria, a concerted action resulted in a new methodological approach, which enabled all 9 counties to survey and to monitor soil using the same procedure (Blum et al. 1989). All soil data collected after 1989 are therefore comparable for the whole soil surface of Austria. For soil protection, 4 principal systems of soil survey exist in Austria: on forest land, the forest soil survey, on agricultural land, the soil taxation survey and the soil management survey. In addition, the whole soil surface of Austria is covered by an environmental soil survey, a soil monitoring system and a soil information system (BORIS). In the following, these different soil surveys are described under the aspect of the Austrian soil protection strategy, see also Blum et al. 1997, Schwarz et al. 2001 and Gerzabek et al. 2002.