State of the Environment: Scotland's Soil Resource
The effects of air and water pollution are visible and obviously
threatening to human health but the importance of soil is often
overlooked. Perhaps this is understandable because soil's capacity
to absorb pollutants has masked their long term effects.
Unfortunately, this has meant that much of the legislation and
regulation that does mention soil is actually designed to protect
our water or air environment rather than soil for its own sake.
Soil degradation is a global problem. A report by the European
Environment Agency and the UN Environment Programme concludes there
are 150 million hectares of European soils at high risk from
erosion and that up to one-third of soils may be significantly
degraded. The most serious problems, it suggests, are building
works that take soil out of productive use, erosion, slope
stability, contamination, acidification, desertification in central
and eastern Europe, and large data gaps which hamper
decision-making.
The SEPA State of the
Environment: Soil Quality Report 
(3.10mb) considers various issues relating to
soil as resource, and land contamination is just one of these
issues. It therefore provides an overview of soil quality, rather
than providing an indication of the extent of contaminated land in
Scotland.
You can view the Report
on the current state and threats to Scotland's soil
resources 
(Scottish
Executive Research report, 2006)