Towards a better characterisation of land degradation and desertification in the European Union

This document describes the application of the methodology to characterise land degradation and desertification to continental European Union, using elements from the EU Soil Observatory Soil Degradation Dashboard as a proxy for soil degradation. Consequently, desertification affects 530 000 km2 (86.56%) of this area (equivalent to around 12% of the EU territory) with implications for around 42 million people. Among the Member States (MS) land with at least one aspect of degradation accounted for the largest share of area in all cases, ranging from 72.74% 11% in Spain, 73.31 in Slovenia, to 6.16% in Hungary.