Potential for the Removal of Impervious Soil Coverage (Soil De-Sealing) 2023

Currently, 222 areas are listed in the Register of Potential Areas for the Removal of Impervious Coverage. The impervious cover has been fully removed for 33 and partially removed for 14 of these areas.

Fig. 1 shows how many areas have been recorded in each of the boroughs of the State of Berlin and in areas of the Berlin forests in the State of Brandenburg. Fig. 2, however, displays the size of the potential areas suitable for removal measures, as well as that of the areas where the impervious cover has already been removed fully or in part.

The vast majority of the areas falls into the category of “diffusely impervious”. These are areas for which the size of the removable impervious cover could not be quantified with sufficient precision. This has generally been the case wherever such potential areas were identified as diffusely scattered across a larger area. In other cases, the reason that such potential areas could not be determined was that they could neither be precisely identified by administrative officials nor delimited accurately using aerial photography (e.g. bunker facilities). It is impossible to gauge the size of the actual removal potential of these areas, as the available porportion of the total area varies.

In the Environmental Atlas, these areas are differentiated and presented in varying shades, based on the expert evaluation of the potential for impervious coverage removal (cf. chapter on Methodology, section on Prioritisation). In addition, areas, which have had their impervious cover removed partially or fully, are mapped.

Locations have a solid colour if more than 50 % of the digitalised area is estimated to be suitable for removal measures. Areas with an estimated potential of less than 50 % are cross-hatched.

Cases for which the potential for removal measures cannot be precisely quantified in terms of the total area (see above “diffusely impervious areas”) are hatched (parallel lines).

Various types of hatching are used to present the impervious coverage removal areas on the map. The “Map structure” menu item offers the possibility to switch off the solid colour or hatching layer, and to only display the borders to identify potential areas suitable for removal measures. The “Map overlay” menu item allows various maps to be added as background information. In this case, it is possible to read the added background maps. The map background may be selected via a menu item in the map window (digital topographic map/ aerial photograph).

Moreover, the Geoportal/ FIS Broker has the option to view figures or photos linked to each impervious coverage removal area under the menu item “Select for factual data retrieval”.

Furthermore, each of these potential areas is linked to a profile (A4 format), which contains a picture including a section of an aerial photograph, the delineation of the potential area for the removal of impervious coverage, and the lot boundaries in ALKIS, as well as a table with all relevant data. This uniform method of recording and presenting data facilitates and simplifies the selection of potential areas for the removal of impervious coverage (cf. Fig. 3).