ANNEX III
BIOPHYSICAL CRITERIA FOR THE DELIMITATION OF AREAS FACING NATURAL CONSTRAINTS
| a Member States need only check fulfilment of this criterion against those of the thresholds that are relevant to the specific situation of an area | ||
| CRITERION | DEFINITION | THRESHOLD |
|---|---|---|
| CLIMATE | ||
| Low Temperaturea | Length of growing period (number of days) defined by number of days with daily average temperature > 5 °C (LGPt5) or | ≤ 180 days |
| Thermal-time sum (degree-days) for Growing Period defined by accumulated daily average temperature > 5 °C | ≤ 1 500 degree-days | |
| Dryness | Ratio of the annual precipitation (P) to the annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) | P/PET ≤ 0.5 |
| CLIMATE AND SOIL | ||
| Excess Soil Moisture | Number of days at or above field capacity | ≥ 230 days |
| SOIL | ||
| Limited Soil Drainagea | Areas which are water logged for significant duration of the year | Wet within 80 cm from the surface for over 6 months, or wet within 40 cm for over 11 months or Poorly or very poorly drained soil or Gleyic colour pattern within 40 cm from the surface |
| Unfavourable Texture and Stoninessa | Relative abundance of clay, silt, sand, organic matter (weight %) and coarse material (volumetric %) fractions | ≥ 15 % of topsoil volume is coarse material, including rock outcrop, boulder or |
| texture class in half or more (cumulatively) of the 100 cm soil surface is sand, loamy sand defined as: Silt % + (2 × clay %) ≤ 30 % or | ||
| Topsoil texture class is heavy clay (≥≥ 60 % clay) or | ||
| Organic soil (organic matter ≥ 30 %) of at least 40 cm or | ||
| Topsoil contains 30 % or more clay, and there are vertic properties within 100 cm of the soil surface | ||
| Shallow Rooting Depth | Depth (cm) from soil surface to coherent hard rock or hard pan | ≤ 30 cm |
| Poor Chemical Propertiesa | Presence of salts, exchangeable sodium, excessive acidity | Salinity: ≥ 4 deci-Siemens per meter (dS/m) in topsoil or |
| Sodicity: ≥ 6 Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) in half or more (cumulatively) of the 100 cm soil surface layer or | ||
| Soil Acidity: pH ≤ 5 (in water) in topsoil | ||
| TERRAIN | ||
| Steep Slope | Change of elevation with respect to planimetric distance (%) | ≥ 15 % |