Abstract: Soil contamination, sealing and degradation are unevenly distributed across territories, yet soil governance and environmental-justice assessment have largely developed through separate regulatory and scientific pathways. This study develops a comparative legal-spatial framework that integrates soil monitoring, Earth observation, geographic information systems (GIS) and environmental justice. The analysis centres on Directive (EU) 2025/2360 on soil monitoring and resilience and examines its interaction with the INSPIRE Directive, the Environmental Information Directive, the Environmental Liability Directive and the Industrial Emissions Directive. Soil-governance approaches in the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are compared with respect to soil monitoring, contaminated-land identification, spatial information, public participation and risk management. Three Greek contexts, the Asopos-Thiva basin, the Thriasio Plain and metropolitan Attica, are examined through published geochemical and land-use evidence to show how Sentinel-2, Landsat and Copernicus imperviousness products can be embedded in a legally traceable monitoring architecture. The study proposes a Soil Environmental Justice Observatory (SEJO) that links soil measurements, contaminated-site records, Earth-observation products, census data and information-access indicators through a legal-provenance layer distinguishing observed, modelled, screened, legally determined and community-reported evidence. A transparent Soil Environmental Justice Index (SEJI), accompanied by a weight-sensitivity protocol, is formulated as a screening instrument rather than a diagnostic or legal determination. The framework offers Member States, and Greece in particular, a reproducible pathway for transposing the Soil Monitoring Law in a manner that is interoperable, spatially explicit and socially contextualised.
Keywords: Environmental justice, Geographic information systems, Greece, Land take, Remote sensing, Soil contamination, Soil governance, Soil monitoring, Soil sealing, Spatial inequality, Sustainable land management, Territorial planning.
Title: Soil Monitoring Legislation and Environmental Justice: A Comparative International Assessment of Soil Governance and Unequal Environmental Risks
Author: Dr Nikolaos Toumasis
International Journal of Novel Research in Civil Structural and Earth Sciences
ISSN 2394-7357
Vol. 13, Issue 3, September 2026 - December 2026
Page No: 1-15
Novelty Journals
Website: www.noveltyjournals.com
Published Date: 30-September-2026
