A fast pacing climate change exacerbates the multitude of humanimpacts. Several reports highlighted (e.g.,Magurran, 2016; Lewis et al.,2017; Diffenbaugh et al., 2018) that the degree of impact imposed byhuman activities on all the ecosystem components are unprecedented.We entered a new era, the Anthropocene (Malhi, 2017; Laurence,2019). In this new era, soil and water resources are exposed to tre-mendous pressure, and our life depends on it.

Soils and water environments (e.g., freshwater, coastal and marine)provide a wide range of direct and indirect regulating (e.g., carbon sequestration, climate regulation, water purification and storage,floodretention), provisioning (e.g., food,fiber, wood), and cultural (e.g.,education, recreation, landscape aesthetics) ecosystem services (ES).Therefore, both soils and water are the key elements to humankind(Barbier, 2017; Pereira et al., 2018; Jorda-Capdevila et al., 2019). Soilsand water environments interact in a continuum through very complexprocesses and feedbacks. For example, agriculture practices have implications on land degradation, water bodies eutrophication and pollution

Land abandonment is an environmental, socio-economic, and poli-tical process, which changes the rural landscapes in a radical way andaffects both developing and developed countries (Li and Li, 2017). Landabandonment became more evident since the 1950s and can be at-tributed to industrialisation, harsh conditions for agriculture practices,remoteness, depopulation, and non-favorable economic conditions in rural areas (Perpina-Castillo et al., 2018). Depending on local factors,agro-climatic conditions, or conservation status, land abandonment canbe considered positive (e.g., increase soil fertility, carbon sequestra-tion), negative (e.g., increase soil erosion and wildfire risk) or variable(e.g., biodiversity) (Ustaoglu and Collier, 2018). Globally, it is estimated that between 1700 and 1992, 1.47 million km2has been aban-doned (Ramankutty and Foley, 1999). In Europe, several areas havebeen abandoned (Renwick et al., 2013). Feranec et al. (2010)foundthat between 1990 and 2000 (25 European countries) that approxi-mately 88,000 km2has been abandoned. Literaturefindings report theland abandonment trends in Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Greece (Zakkaket al., 2015), Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria (Prevosto et al.,2011), Spain (Romero-Diaz et al., 2017), Portugal (van der Zandenet al., 2018), Poland (Sanderson et al., 2013), United Kingdom (Fordet al., 2012), France (Foucher et al., 2019), Italy (Brandolini et al.,2018), Switzerland (Rusterholz et al., 2019), Hungary (Cegielska et al.,2018), Baltic (Nikodemus et al., 2005) and Scandinavian countries(Rautiainen et al., 2016).

Approximately 11% agricultural area of the European Union (EU) is in risk of land abandonment till 2030 (Perpina-Castillo et al., 2018). Land abandonment causes limited management ofvegetation in semi-natural areas. Several landscapes are affected by arewilding process that further degrades agricultural terraces (Tarolliet al., 2019), increases evapotranspiration (Wang et al., 2018a) anddecreases the water quantity reaching to water bodies (Khorchani et al.,2020). Vegetation encroachment is also one of the causes of the increasing severity of summer wildfires in the Mediterranean (Moreiraet al., 2020). However, as we assist in recent years, these wildfires alsoaffect other parts of Europe, such as Scandinavia (Bodin and Nohrstedt,2016). These events have an impact on soil degradation, especially ifthe recurrence is high (Mayor et al., 2016). After a wildfire, the removal of vegetation and soil cover increases ash and soil transport to waterbodies (Nunes et al., 2018; Rhoades et al., 2019).