Skip to main content Skip to footer

Floor

Soil is more than just a built-up and sealed surface. It is a habitat, a basis for life and has important functions in our ecosystem.

Until just a few years ago, soil was regarded as a medium that could be used almost carefree as an agricultural production site as well as a residential, leisure, commercial, transport and industrial site, sealed and built on, used as a disposal site for all kinds of waste and often tolerated several uses at the same time. Yet soil is much more than that:

  • It is the basis of life and a habitat for plants, animals and humans.
  • It takes thousands of years to form from rock through physical, chemical and biological weathering and transformation processes under the influence of climate and vegetation.
  • It protects the groundwater as a filter and buffer.
  • It has numerous other key functions in the ecosystem.

Soil endangerment

Soil is damaged or irretrievably destroyed by inappropriate use, sealing, compaction, erosion, pollutant input or overuse, which reduces the quality of life - not only for humans. Damage to the soil and the restriction of its function as a filter and buffer for pollutants also increases the risk of groundwater pollution. Around 129 hectares of land are currently sealed every day in Germany. If land consumption continues at this rate, valuable soils will become scarce in the not too distant future and planning conflicts will become ever greater.

Soil Protection Act

When the Federal Soil Protection Act came into force in March 1999, the first step was taken by the legislator to give greater weight to soil as a protected resource, which had previously played a rather subordinate role in the area of environmental protection - in contrast to the protected resources of air, water, flora and fauna. The aim of the law is to preserve the numerous functions of the soil, to protect the soil from damage or to restore it after damage. Soil should be used in such a way that no harmful changes to the soil occur and, in addition, the consumption of soil through sealing, e.g. building development, should be kept to a minimum. The German government has set itself the goal of reducing daily soil sealing from the current level of approx. 110 ha/a to 30 ha in 2020. These federal government targets are to be implemented in the federal states and local authorities through appropriate programs, concepts and measures. Bad Homburg has taken this seriously since 2003 and had a soil protection concept drawn up. In addition, all suspected contaminated sites caused by local authorities have been investigated since 1990.

Soil protection

Soil protection in the city of Bad Homburg is not just an end in itself, but is integrated into the objectives of planning and economic, social and ecological development.

Soil protection in Bad Homburg

In connection with the Soil Protection Act, the city of Bad Homburg is faced with the task of concretizing and implementing the soil protection goals already anchored in the law as well as in the regional land use plan and the landscape plan of the former Frankfurt/Rhine-Main conurbation planning association (now the regional association), which have now been expanded.

Soil protection goals

Adapted to the conditions in Bad Homburg, the following overarching objectives are to be pursued with regard to soil protection:

Saving land as a primary objective (quantitative soil protection)

Evaluation of soil functions to take soil protection concerns into account in planning (qualitative soil protection)

Establishment of a digital soil information system to bundle data and information Development of a land development report as land monitoring

Public relations work to develop "soil awareness"

Soil and soil classificationLarge view of the image "Soil and soil classification"

© City of Bad Homburg

Soil protection benefits

Soil protection in the city of Bad Homburg is not just an end in itself, but is integrated into the objectives of planning and economic, social and ecological development. Apart from the benefits for the soil and thus for its central position in the ecosystem, there are also financial, planning and immaterial benefits for the town of Bad Homburg. These can be cost savings in the areas of infrastructure, pre-financing, compensatory measures or investigation costs for contaminated areas, which in turn result in a reduced burden on the city's investment budget, freeing up space for other urgent expenditure. Furthermore, the attractiveness of the inner city in particular can be increased by optimizing land use, improving the social fabric of the city and optimizing the architectural and design aspects, thus preserving the typical character of the city in the long term.

Results to date

Concrete results of the soil protection concept from 2004 are

An assessment of the current state of the soil

An assessment of the current threat to the soil

An assessment of the soil quality and the development potential of the soil

The formulation of development goals, measures and indicators, decision-making tools for the consideration of soil protection in urban planning and everyday administration

An action program for soil protection

Left:

Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection

https://umwelt.hessen.de/umwelt/bodenschutz

We are here for you!
Holger Fröhlich
Our address
Magistrat der Stadt Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe
Technisches Rathaus
Bahnhofstraße 16-18
61352 Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe
Our address
Magistrat der Stadt Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe
Stadtverwaltung
61343 Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe