Clarifying the EU objective of no net land take: A necessity to avoid the cure being worse than the disease

The European Union’s objective to stop land take by 2050 calls for a paradigmatic shift in urban development. While the reduction of land take may no longer be a matter for debate, the lack of clarity regarding the definition of the phenomenon and the way it should be monitored and tackled can nevertheless have counterproductive consequences. This paper highlights the importance of considering the degree of soil sealing in land take mitigation strategies, with the aim of ensuring that the EU objective is not achieved at the cost of the unsustainable intensification of land use within already artificial urban areas. The research relies on an analysis carried out of Europe’s 100 largest cities, in which the rates of soil sealing within the artificial areas of the urban morphological zones were measured. These rates range from 31.5 % to 72.6 %, underlining the diversity of contexts and the need for tailored approaches. •The land use rate in the morphological urban cores of the 100 European cities studied varies between 74. 2% and 96.4 %.•The rate of soil sealing varies between 31.5% and 72.6%, which shows the differences in internal densification potential.•The different configurations of European cities underline the need to develop tailored strategies to reduce land take.