Comparative analysis of the concepts of soil sealing and land take in major European cities

The objective of no net land take by 2050, first mentioned in 2011 in the document titled 'Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe', is becoming one of the biggest challenges facing European planners. It aims to halt the dramatic expansion of the area covered by cities in Europe, an expansion that threatens biodiversity and food supply.
However, despite the apparent simplicity of the objective, the concept of land take can lead to misunderstandings and even potentially to counterproductive outcomes, as it introduces a dichotomous distinction between non-artificial areas, which benefit from a positive connotation, and urban areas, which appear, by contrast, to be problematic (...)