Ireland "should advance" soil mapping and modelling to support the proposed soil monitoring law and soil health assessment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The new State of the Environment Report 2024 published today (Thursday, October 3) states that the protection of soils lacked a legal and policy framework until recently.

The publication of the EU Soil Strategy in 2021 and the proposed soil monitoring law in 2023 have been described as "significant" by the EPA.

However, the EPA stated that Ireland "faces challenges" in achieving the objectives of the EU Soil Strategy and in implementing the proposed soil monitoring law. However, getting this right would "significantly advance" the protection of Ireland’s soil health.

Agricultural practices with high levels of mechanisation and use of pesticides strongly affect soil biodiversity, according to the EPA.

The report pulls on research from a review of Irish soils and data from 2013 to 2021 identified major gaps in knowledge.

It found that current research was biased towards the collection of data on soil pH and nitrogen content and that agricultural soils were studied more than urban or contaminated soils. It showed that soil knowledge in Ireland is not well aligned to EU or national priorities.

The EPA recommended that Ireland should "support" laws surrounding soil through a "cross-public sector approach" in order to improve overall knowledge on soil health nationally.

In regards to water objectives, the report showed that 1,649 water bodies or 34% are at risk of not meeting their environmental objectives by 2027.

The EPA undertakes a full assessment of the overall quality and ecological status of Ireland’s waters every three years and reports on the indicators of water quality in the intervening years.

The data and evidence in this report is based on the most recent full assessment of the status of Ireland’s surface waters and updated indicators data from 2022.

The report highlighted the top four significant pressures impacting "at-risk" water bodies, which include:

Agriculture: Including the loss of excess nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) from farming activities;
Activities that damage hydromorphology: Changes to flow and physical habitat can damage the ecology and change the natural function and processes of water bodies;
Forestry: Activities such as afforestation, forest road works, thinning, clear-felling and reforestation can cause the release of sediment, nutrients and pesticides to water bodies and can impact habitat conditions;
Urban waste water: The release of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), organic pollution and the release of pathogens from poorly or untreated sewage that pose a risk to human health.

The EPA stated that it is "essential" to build climate resilience into water quality management and into water services, with plans such as the Water Quality and Water Services Climate Adaptation Plan.