With the adoption and publication of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive in November 2025, the European Union has adopted its first dedicated legislative framework addressing soil as an environmental compartment, alongside existing legislation on air and water. The Directive establishes a harmonised monitoring system to assess soil health across Member States, marking a structural shift in how soil data will be generated, compared and used for policymaking.
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In this context, a new report from the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), Towards Harmonized Soil Monitoring in the EU: An Inventory of Existing International and European Standards, provides important technical groundwork for implementation. The Directive requires the use of reference methodologies and foresees the development of transfer functions to ensure that alternative methods produce comparable results. This makes technical standardisation a central pillar of the new framework.
The JRC report compiles an inventory of 574 soil-related standards developed by major international and European standard-setting bodies, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). It also covers methodologies developed by other recognised institutions such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization through its Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN).
The breadth of existing standards illustrates both the maturity of soil science methodologies and the fragmentation that has developed over time. Different sampling protocols, analytical techniques and reporting formats can limit data comparability across borders. For a harmonised EU monitoring system to function effectively, methodological alignment is essential to ensure that soil descriptors, such as organic carbon, nutrient content or contaminants, are measured consistently.
The Directive already builds on established methodologies, notably those used in the LUCAS topsoil surveys conducted between 2009 and 2022, providing a practical starting point for harmonisation. However, the JRC inventory demonstrates that further coordination will be required to streamline standards, clarify reference methods and support Member States in transitioning to a common framework.
Ultimately, harmonised soil monitoring is not merely a technical exercise. Reliable, comparable data underpin effective soil protection, sustainable land management and informed nutrient policies. As implementation of the Soil Monitoring Law progresses, the alignment of standards will be critical to transforming legislative ambition into measurable environmental outcomes across the Union.
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