Incorporating sewage sludge (SS) into soils presents a cost-effective and environmentally friendly option compared to conventional farming practices. However, SS could be perceived as a double-edged sword, as it may contain a broad spectrum of contaminants, such as heavy metals (HMs), microplastics (MPs), Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PIE), and personal care products (PSPs), raising concerns for soil health, water resources, food safety, and human health. Council Directive 86/278/EEC, which regulates SS application in agriculture, specifies limits for six HMs but has not undergone substantive revisions since its inception in 1986, until the release of the updated working document SWD-2023-{final 158}. This study critically examines the legislative landscape across the European Union (EU) Member States (MSs), identifying heterogeneity in implementation, regulatory gaps, and the absence of thresholds for emerging contaminants. The results reveal significant disparities in the permissible concentrations of HMs across MSs and in comparison to international guidelines established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, the absence of regulatory measures for MPs, PIE, and other common soil pollutants underscores critical deficiencies in the current framework. These inconsistencies contribute to varying levels of soil health across the EU and highlight the need for a harmonized approach. The findings of this study highlight the imperative for a comprehensive overhaul of the EU legislative framework governing SS application. As evidenced, the establishment of harmonized contaminant thresholds, rigorous monitoring protocols, and regulatory provisions for emergent pollutants is essential for addressing the identified regulatory gaps, enhancing legislative coherence, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices aligned with the EU’s environmental and public health objectives.

Incorporating sewage sludge (SS) into soils presents a cost-effective and environmentally friendly option compared to conventional farming practices. However, SS could be perceived as a double-edged sword, as it may contain a broad spectrum of contaminants, posing threats to soil, underground waters, food chains and human health. Even from an epidemiology perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has instigated debates regarding the potential health risks associated with SS. The handling of SS is emerging as a significant issue in the European Union (EU), primarily due to its increasing utilization and the presence of contaminants such as heavy metals (HMs), microplastics (MPs), Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PIE), and personal care products (PSPs). The Council Directive 86/278/EEC governs the limits of HMs when SS is utilized in agriculture. However, the Directive is enacted diversely throughout EU member states (MS), with their national legislations highlighting differences, gaps and various approaches in implementing the Council Directive. The Directive, which has been in force since 1986, has not undergone any significant revisions until the recent disclosure of a revised version in May 2023. The executive summary of the evaluation of the Council Directive 86/278/EEC (SWD-2023) – {final 158} specifies maximum concentrations of six HMs in SS among its regulatory measures. This article delves into capturing the current legal framework that defines and delimits the processes and obligations of EU MS regarding SS's management, treatment, and agriculture amendment. The primary objective is to explore the qualitative and quantitative differences/discrepancies between the MS National legislation and point out discontinuities and gaps, thus setting forward a cohesive step for future revisions and updates of the relevant legislation. Part of the article's results reflect the different approaches to permissible limits of HMs concentrations in the EU MS and between international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, the total absence of MPs and other Common Soil Pollutants (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, etc.) limit values are evidence of the gaps in the current legislative framework.

Land use transformation, the longest-standing human-driven environmental alteration, is a pressing and complex issue that significantly impacts European landscapes and contributes to global environmental change. The urgency to act is reinforced by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which identifies industrial, commercial, and residential development—particularly near major urban centers—as key contributors to land take. As the EU sets a vision for achieving zero net land take by 2050, assessing the readiness and coherence of national legislation becomes critical. This comprehensive study employs a comparative legal analysis across five European countries—Italy, Greece, Poland, France, and Ukraine—examining their laws, strategies, and commitments related to land degradation neutrality. Using a review of national legislation and policy documents, the research identifies systemic patterns, barriers, and opportunities within current legal frameworks. The present study aims to provide valuable insights for policymakers, planners, and academic institutions, fostering a comprehensive understanding of existing gaps, implementation, and inconsistencies in national land use legislation. Among the results, it has become evident that a typical “pathway” between the examined states in terms of the legislative framework on land use–land take is probably a utopia for the time being. The legislations in force, in several cases, are labyrinthine and multifaceted, highlighting the urgent and immediate need for simplification and standardization. The need for this action is further underscored by the fact that, in most cases, land use frameworks are characterized by complementary legislation and ongoing amendments. Ultimately, the research underscores the critical need for harmonized governance and transparent, enforceable policies, particularly in regions where deregulated land use planning persists. The diversity in legislative layers and the decentralized role of the authorities further compounds the complexity, reinforcing the importance of cross-country dialogue and EU-wide coordination in advancing sustainable land use development.

Accurate and spatially detailed soil information is essential for supporting sustainable land use planning, particularly in data-scarce regions such as Cyprus, where soil degradation risks are intensified by land fragmentation, water scarcity, and climate change pressure. This study aimed to generate national-scale predictive maps of key soil health descriptors by integrating satellite-based indicators with a recently released geo-referenced soil dataset. A machine learning model was applied to estimate a suite of soil properties, including organic carbon, pH, texture fractions, macronutrients, and electrical conductivity. The resulting maps reflect spatial patterns consistent with previous studies focused on Cyprus and provide high resolution insights into degradation processes, such as organic carbon loss, and salinization risk. These outputs provide added value for identifying priority zones for soil conservation and evidence-based land management planning. While predictive uncertainty is greater in areas lacking ground reference data, particularly in the northeastern part of the island, the modeling framework demonstrates strong potential for a national-scale soil health assessment. The outcomes are directly relevant to ongoing soil policy developments, including the forthcoming Soil Monitoring Law, and provide spatial prediction models and indicator maps that support the assessment and mitigation of soil degradation.

Soil is the life support system of terrestrial ecosystems, making comprehending its processes and functions vital for global food security, global climate change regulation, and achieving sustainability in agriculture. The knowledge of soil processes and the up-to-date soil status is a prerequisite towards sustainable environmental management and for reducing risks in decision-making. Over the past decades, the notable introduction and adoption of digital technologies in Remote Sensing (RS), the improvement of spatial data applications, the development of quantitative techniques to understand soil patterns, and the detailed visualization of soils through new applications, increased our capacity to predict, assess and explain soil and its patterns. The current review paper, apart from accessing techniques/applications of RS and Proximal Sensing (PS) utilized towards soil mapping predictions, extends its interest in demonstrating the increasingly key role of RS and PS utilized to determine soil attributes such as texture, soil moisture, soil organic carbon (SOC) and iron content. Limitations and the difficulties of remote and proximal sensing are overviewed, while additionally, the crucial issue of accuracy of the classification of the thematic maps derived is addressed. Furthermore, this review paper aims to review the status of current mapping methods and provide deeper and more detailed insight into techniques in contemporary systematic soil mapping.

COVID-19 has affected the entire existence of humans. Despite the mass vaccination programs globally deployed, some governments are still struggling to minimize human losses, high rates of virus transmission, and the socio-economic shock the entire planet has being gone through. COVID-19 has seriously affected all global socio-economic sectors. In this direction, agriculture, food-security and the environment could not be outside of the high-scale negative impacts, especially during the first year of the imposed lockdowns on both national and global scales. The present study provides information on the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns imposed, having as its study area the Republic of Cyprus. The study focuses on potato cultivation and production, and on which level entire agricultural procedures were affected during the examined period of the lockdown. A survey methodology study was done with questionnaires distributed to local potato farmers across the country to quantify and identify the link between the pandemic and the potato sector of the island. It was revealed that manpower was limited due to the lockdowns, the distribution of crops to markets disrupted, long delays in transactions in the agricultural sector were experienced, and economic uncertainty, in general, in Cyprus was experienced, among other impacts. Results of the study indicated that—since COVID-19 is not going to be the last disease—a global transition towards a more resilient and spatially localised food network is required.