Soil erosion in Denmark: processes and politics

Denmark has been dealing seriously with wind erosion problems for the past 125 years whereas water erosion did not come into focus until serious euthrophication appeared in the coastal waters in 1986. This paper describes the problems and processes of soil erosion in Denmark and how these are inter-linked with the political system through subsidies, production systems, etc. The dominant soil erosion processes in Denmark are wind, sheet, rill, tillage and bank erosion. Whereas wind erosion is predominant on sandy soils with low soil fertility, sheet, rill and tillage erosion are mainly on till from the last glaciation and is largely caused by snowmelt events and prolonged rain on saturated and/or partly frozen soil. Danish laws and subsidies have played a major role in managing soil erosion. This has for instance been manifested by the extensive planting of windbreaks and the establishment of buffer zones along water courses. On the other hand, the focus on reducing nitrate leaching has led to increased sheet and rill erosion resulting from a larger number of fields with winter crops. When it comes to reducing phosphorous transport to the aquatic environment, soil erosion has been recognized as an important process but a thorough understanding of the mechanisms are lacking. Finally, the case study of the Water Environmental Protection Plan I shows that both the media and NGOs can play an important role in pushing environmental problems associated with soil erosion onto the political agenda and with the NGOs having a great say in the actual shaping of the laws.