Scientific indicators and stakeholders’ perceptions on soil threats in France: how do they compare?
Résumé
Soils are under multiple threats on a global scale, with varying levels of intensity and nature in different regions. Therefore, it is crucial to assess soil threats at a local level using specific indicators. Scientific indicators have been developed to accurately assess soil health, yet they can be challenging to implement at a local scale. As some stakeholders have a good knowledge of soil condition, the objective of this paper is to determine whether stakeholders' perception of soil threats can be used as a complementary indicator. The study focuses on five soil threats: erosion, artificialisation, compaction, soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, and contamination. It is based on 1,951 responses from a participatory stakeholder consultation conducted in France in 2021. We explored stakeholders’ prioritization of soil threats and elaborated perception maps at the departmental scale. We then compared stakeholders’ perception maps with scientific indicator maps per soil threats at the departmental scale. Our findings indicate that stakeholders consider artificialisation to be the most important threat in France. The spatial distribution of soil threats based on stakeholders’ perceptions and scientific indicators matches in 43% of the departments for SOC loss, and in over half of the departments for erosion (50%), artificialisation (63%), compaction (57%), and contamination (74%). However, disparities remain in certain departments and depending on the threat. These disparities can be explained by biases in the used indicators (scientific or stakeholders’ perception) or in the comparison. It can be concluded that, when these biases are taking into consideration, stakeholders’ perception can be used as an indicator for soil threats and can supplement existing scientific indicators.
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