Preserving Land Quality in European Metropolis

The initiatives of the Member States of the European Union aimed at soil protection vary and focus on the degradation processes that each of them considers as priorities. Mediterranean countries have adopted national action programs to combat land degradation, to which they are particularly sensitive both for climatic conditions (drought, water scarcity, intense rainfall) and for anthropic activities (such as deforestation). In their programs, they identify the actions necessary to address the problem of land degradation and which, therefore, are implicitly in favor of land quality. In this chapter, we discuss some management and governance aspects considering the study cases of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece or France. In addition, we propose a wide range of cultural and good practices, which are nowadays implemented by some countries or should be taken into account.