Overbuilding, in Italy we lose two square meters of soil per second – Corriere.it

Italy loses 2 square meters of soil every second. And in 2021 the average was 19 hectares per day, the highest value in the last 10 years. The WWF is sounding the alarm for World Soil Day, which is celebrated on December 5th. To date, 21,500 square kilometers of land are cemented, and the buildings alone occupy 5,400 square kilometres, an area equal to Liguria. The soil lost since 2012 would have guaranteed the infiltration of over 360 million cubic meters of rainwater which instead, remaining on the surfaces waterproofed by asphalt and concrete, aggravates the hydrogeological instability which caused 438 deaths from 2000 to 2019. “In order not to repeat other dramas like the one in Ischia, the last thing we have to do is keep building”, warns the association.

Over 16% of the territory at hydrogeological risk

“The soil guarantees ecosystem services that are fundamental for our life, our security and the development of our economy,” recalls the WWF. Agricultural production, timber, carbon storage and erosion control, pollination and microclimate regulation, particulate and ozone removal up to availability and water purification including cycle regulation depend on it hydrological. The association reiterates that “Italy is a fragile country” because over 16% of the territory is located in areas “at high hydrogeological risk and 6 million people live in areas of potential risk”.

The complaint of the WWF

Instead, “official data tell us that in 2021 we reached the peak of overbuilding in the area in the last 10 years”, denounces Luciano Di Tizio, president of WWF Italy. The continuous loss of soil “leads to the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats, with significant effects also on species” of plants and animals and also weakens “the effectiveness of the main tool for protecting nature with which modern societies are equipped: the protected areas”. In this regard, FederBio recalls that “in a handful of earth there are more living organisms than there are people on Earth”, or “more than eight billion bacteria, earthworms, nematodes and many other species”. An incredible richness and variety of living organisms which «ensures, in addition to the fertility of the soils and their capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, also the presence and availability of the 18 micro and macro nutrients necessary for the growth of food plants and health Human”.