Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management

The nexus between soil and water is manifold. Healthy soils contribute to safe water sources, and sustainable water management contributes back to healthy soils. All of these aspects are underlined by legislation.Sustainable soil management is an integral part of land management and many jurisdictio...

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Main Author: Teemu Viinikainen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-12-01
Series:Soil Security
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266700622300028X
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author Teemu Viinikainen
author_facet Teemu Viinikainen
author_sort Teemu Viinikainen
collection DOAJ
description The nexus between soil and water is manifold. Healthy soils contribute to safe water sources, and sustainable water management contributes back to healthy soils. All of these aspects are underlined by legislation.Sustainable soil management is an integral part of land management and many jurisdictions around the world may address soil within land management instruments or within soil-specific legislation. Some countries may also include provisions related to soil management in agriculture, land, environmental, and most relevantly for this particular piece, in water laws. Further, a number of soil-specific pieces of legislation may contain provisions explicitly dealing with water related issues.This brief article will explore how the regulatory measures commonly contained in national water laws can be used to support sustainable soil management. Common features that will be considered include environmental criteria in permits/concession for water abstractions (controlling water availability and supporting biodiversity), requirements on treatment and discharge of wastewater (reducing pollution, acidification and biodiversity losses in soils), irrigation legislation (aiming to retain appropriate amounts of water in soils by either draining waterlogged areas or providing irrigation to areas susceptible to droughts), legislation on flood control (preventing floods from washing away topsoil) and climate change legislation.By choosing a related but separate field as a topic of inquiry – water legislation – the piece further shows how the sustainable management of soils requires an interdisciplinary effort and is affected by a constellation of legal instruments, going far beyond individual soil-specific pieces of legislation.
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spelling doaj.art-cd8183fcf8c74a87873ea722d89608d22023-12-15T07:26:58ZengElsevierSoil Security2667-00622023-12-0113100111Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil managementTeemu Viinikainen0Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Roma RM, ItalyThe nexus between soil and water is manifold. Healthy soils contribute to safe water sources, and sustainable water management contributes back to healthy soils. All of these aspects are underlined by legislation.Sustainable soil management is an integral part of land management and many jurisdictions around the world may address soil within land management instruments or within soil-specific legislation. Some countries may also include provisions related to soil management in agriculture, land, environmental, and most relevantly for this particular piece, in water laws. Further, a number of soil-specific pieces of legislation may contain provisions explicitly dealing with water related issues.This brief article will explore how the regulatory measures commonly contained in national water laws can be used to support sustainable soil management. Common features that will be considered include environmental criteria in permits/concession for water abstractions (controlling water availability and supporting biodiversity), requirements on treatment and discharge of wastewater (reducing pollution, acidification and biodiversity losses in soils), irrigation legislation (aiming to retain appropriate amounts of water in soils by either draining waterlogged areas or providing irrigation to areas susceptible to droughts), legislation on flood control (preventing floods from washing away topsoil) and climate change legislation.By choosing a related but separate field as a topic of inquiry – water legislation – the piece further shows how the sustainable management of soils requires an interdisciplinary effort and is affected by a constellation of legal instruments, going far beyond individual soil-specific pieces of legislation.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266700622300028XSustainable soil managementLegislationWater legislation
spellingShingle Teemu Viinikainen
Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
Soil Security
Sustainable soil management
Legislation
Water legislation
title Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
title_full Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
title_fullStr Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
title_full_unstemmed Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
title_short Regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
title_sort regulatory measures in water legislation that can support sustainable soil management
topic Sustainable soil management
Legislation
Water legislation
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266700622300028X
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