Soil erosion risk

Erosion risk expresses how much farmland is threatened by erosion, i.e. soil being carried away by water or wind. For water erosion, Czech Act No. 334/1992 Coll. bases it on the average long-term soil loss in tonnes per hectare per year relative to soil depth. Causing erosion risk above the permissible level is prohibited. The risk grows with slope steepness and length, with the soil's erodibility and with crops that give the soil little cover.

Where you will come across it

• The LPIS land register records erosion risk categories for arable land: severely erosion-prone (SEO), moderately erosion-prone (MEO, split into MEO I and MEO II since 2025) and not at risk (NEO). Under the GAEC 5 standard (DZES 5), farmers receiving subsidies may not grow crops with low protective effect on SEO land, such as maize, potatoes, beet, soya or sunflower.
• Decree No. 240/2021 Coll., in force since 1 July 2021, sets the permissible level of water erosion risk by soil depth and measures to reduce it. Risk is assessed in an online erosion calculator. An amendment effective from 1 July 2027 adds the assessment of wind erosion.
• The agricultural soil erosion monitoring system (State Land Office and the VÚMOP research institute) records actual erosion events; its map is publicly available.

What it means for a buyer

A house below a sloping field may be hit by mud and water washing down in a heavy downpour, especially when the field is bare or planted with wide-row crops. Check which category applies to the field above the house, whether erosion events have occurred nearby and which way water runs over the terrain; a digital terrain model helps. A related risk is described under flash flood.

How erosion is prevented

The decree distinguishes organisational measures (suitable crop placement, protective grassing, strip cropping), agronomic measures (contour and conservation tillage, subsoiling) and technical measures (ditches, swales, grassed waterways, banks, retention ponds, terraces). Permanent grassland protects soil better than arable land, which is why ploughing it up requires consent (see meadows and pastures).

Whom do I report an erosion event to?

The local branch of the State Land Office (Státní pozemkový úřad). It inspects the event on site and enters it into the erosion monitoring system; repeated events are the basis for assessment by the agricultural land protection authority.