How much is soil erosion costing us?

ABSTRACT

Soils have many functions including flood alleviation and carbon storage, and act as repositories of micro-organisms and archaeological artefacts. To the farmer and to society, soils are the principal means of producing food. However, soil erosion impacts on these functions over both short and long timescales. These impacts give rise to costs to the farmer and to others away from the farm. Estimates show that off-farm costs are far greater than on-farm ones. Muddy flooding of properties, sedimentation and the pollution of watercourses and reservoirs are among the highest costs. Yet, monetary values for some impacts of soil erosion are not available. In the future, climate and land use changes are likely to increase costs unless mitigation measures are put in place. Limited evidence suggests that well-designed mitigation schemes cost far less than repairing the damage caused by soil erosion.

Acknowledgments

I thank Dr Karel Vandaele for Figure 2 and Southern Water for the costs of water treatment. Also, I thank Professor Ian Foster, Dr Bob Evans and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the article.

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John Boardman

John Boardman is Emeritus Professor in the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, UK, and Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, University of the Free State, South Africa (email: [email protected]).