Environmental sustainability will only be achieved by maintenance and improvement of soil quality. Soil quality is considered as the capacity of a soil to function. Its assessment focuses on dynamic aspects to evaluate the sustainability of soil management practices. In this chapter, a wide perspective of soil quality and the complex task of its assessment, considering the inherent and dynamic factors, are introduced. It focuses on the possibilities of applying and integrating the accumulated knowledge in agroecological land evaluation in order to predict soil quality. Advanced information technologies in modern decision support tools enable the integration of large and complex databases, models, tools, and techniques, and are proposed to improve the decision-making process in soil quality management. Although universal recommendations on soil quality and sustainability of soil management must not be done, this chapter presents general trends in soil quality management strategies. This includes arable land identification, crop diversification, organic matter restoration, tillage intensity, and soil input rationalization.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Antoine, J. (1994). Linking geographical information systems (GIS) and FAO’s agro-ecological zone (AEZ) models for land resource appraisal. FAO World Soil Resources, Report 75. Rome, FAO.
Arias, M. E., Gonzalez-Perez, J. A., Gonzalez-Vila, F. J., & Ball A. (2005). Soil health-a new challenge for microbiologists and chemists. International Microbiology, 8, 13–21.
Arshad, M. A. (1999). Tillage and soil quality: Tillage practices for sustainable agriculture and environmental quality in different agro-ecosystems. Soil & Tillage Research, 53, 1–2.
Arshad, M. A., & Martin, S. (2002). Identifying critical limits for soil quality indicators in agro-ecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 88, 153–160.
Ball, A., & De la Rosa, D. (2006). Modeling possibilities for the assessment of soil systems. In: N. Uphoff, A. Ball, E. Fernandes, H. Herren, O. Husson, M. Laing, Ch. Palm, J. Pretty, P. Sanchez, N. Sanginga, & J. Thies (Eds.), Biological approaches to sustainable soil systems (pp.683–692). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis/CRC Press.
Bergstrom, D. W., Monreal, C. M., & King, D. J. (1998). Sensitivity of soil enzyme activity to conservation practices. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 62, 1286–1295.
CGIAR. (2006). Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Available at http://www.cgiar.org. (Retrieved on 24 February 2006.)
Davidson, D. (1992). The evaluation of land resources. Harlow, Essex, UK: Longman.
Davidson, D. (2000). Soil quality assessment: Recent advances and controversies. Progress in Environmental Science, 2, 342–350.
De la Rosa, D. (Ed.) (1984). Catalogo de suelos de Andalucia. Sevilla, Spain: Agencia de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucia.
De la Rosa, D. (2005). Soil quality evaluation and monitoring based on land evaluation. Land Degradation & Development, 16, 551–559.
De la Rosa, D., & Moreira, J. M. (Eds.) (1987). Evaluacion agro-ecologica de recursos naturales de Andalucia. Sevilla, Spain: Agencia de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucia.
De la Rosa, D., Moreno, J. A., Garcia, L. V., & Almorza, J. (1992). MicroLEIS: A microcomputer-based Mediterranean land evaluation information system. Soil Use & Management, 8, 89–96.
De la Rosa, D., Mayol, F., Moreno, J. A., Bonson, T., & Lozano, S. (1999). An expert system/neural network model (ImpelERO) for evaluating agricultural soil erosion in Andalucia region. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 73, 211–226.
De la Rosa, D., Moreno, J. A., Mayol, F., & Bonson, T. (2000). Assessment of soil erosion vulnerability in western Europe and potential impact on crop productivity due to loss of soil depth using the ImpelERO model. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 81, 179–190.
De la Rosa, D., Mayol, F., Moreno, F., Cabrera, F., Diaz-Pereira, E., & Antoine, J. (2002). A multilingual soil profile database (SDBm Plus) as an essential part of land resources information systems. Environmental Modeling & Software, 17, 721–730.
De la Rosa, D., & Van Diepen, C. (2003). Qualitative and quantitative land evaluation. In W. Verheye (Ed.), 1.5 Land Use and Land Cover, Encyclopedia of Life Support System (EOLSS-UNESCO). Oxford: Eolss. Available at http://www.eolss.net.
De la Rosa, D., Mayol, F., Diaz-Pereira, E., Fernandez, M., & De la Rosa, D., Jr. (2004). A land evaluation decision support system (MicroLEIS DSS) for agricultural soil protection. Environmental Modeling & Software, 19, 929–942. Available at http://www.microleis.com.
Derpsch, R., & Benites, J. (2003). Situation of conservation agriculture in the world. In: Proceedings of the Second World Congress on Conservation Agriculture: Producing in harmony with nature. Iguasu, Brasil/Rome: FAO.
Dexter, A. R., & Bird, N. R. A. (2001). Methods for predicting the optimum and the range of soil water contents for tillage based on the water retention curve. Soil & Tillage Research, 57, 203–212.
Dexter, A. R. (2004). Soil physical quality. Part I. Theory, effects of soil texture, density and organic matter, and effects on root growth. Geoderma, 120, 201–214.
Doran, J. W., & Jones, A. J. (1996). Methods for assessing soil quality. SSSA Special Publication 49. Madison, WI: Soil Science Society of America.
Doran, J. W., Sarrantonio, M., & Liebig, M. A. (1997). Soil health and sustainability. Advances in Agronomy, 56, 1–54.
EC. (2002). Towards a thematic strategy for soil protection. Communication from the EC to the European Parliament. COM 2002, 179 final. Available at http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/printversion/en/lvb/128122.htm.
FAO. (1976). A framework for land evaluation. Soils Bulletin, 32. Rome: FAO.
FAO. (1978). Report on the Agro-ecological Zones Project. World Soil Resources Report, 48. Rome: FAO.
FAO-CSIC, (2003). The multilingual soil profile database SDBm Plus. Land and Water Digital Media Series, 23. Rome: FAO.
Gomez, J. A., Giraldez, J. V., Pastor, M., & Fereres, E. (1999). Effects of tillage methods on soil physical properties, infiltration and yield in an olive orchard. Soil & Tillage Research, 52, 167–175.
ICASA. (2006). International Consortium for Agricultural Systems Application. Available at http://www.icasa.net. (Retrieved on 20 February 2006)
Imeson, A., Arnoldussen, A., De la Rosa, D., Montanarella, L., Dorren, L., Curfs, M., Arnalds, O., & Van Asselen, S. (2006). SCAPE: Soil conservation and protection in Europe. The way ahead. Luxembourg: CEE-JRC.
Karlen, D. L., Mausbach, M. J., Doran, J. W., Cline, R. G., Harris, R. F., & Schuman, G. E. (1997). Soil quality: A concept, definition and framework for evaluation. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 61, 4–10.
Martinez-Raya, A. (2003). Evaluacion y control de la erosion hidrica en suelos agricolas en pendiente, en clima mediterraneao. In: R. Bienes & M. J. Marques (Eds.), Perspectivas de la degradacion del suelo (pp.109–122). I Simposio Nacional de Erosion de Suelos.
Moreno, F., Murillo, J. M., Pelegrin, F., & Giron, I. F. (2006). Long-term impact of conservation tillage on stratification ratio of soil organic carbon and loss of total and active CaCO3. Soil & Tillage Research, 85, 86–93.
Moscatelli, G.; Sobral, R. (2005). Avances en la selección de indicadores de calidad para las series de suelos representativas de la region Pampeana, Argentina. Buenos Aires: INTA. Available at http://www.inta.gov.ar/mjuarez.
Nortcliff, S., (2002). Standardization of soil quality attributes. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 88, 161–168.
Oxley, T., McIntosh, B. S., Winder, N., Mulligan, M., & Engelen, G. (2004). Integrated modelling and decision support tools: A Mediterranean example. Environmental Modeling & Software, 19, 999–1010.
Pachepsky, Y., & Rawls, W. J. (2004). Development of pedotransfer functions in soil hydrology. Development in Soil Science, Vol. 30. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Quilchano, C., & Marañon, T., (2002). Dehydrogenase activity in Mediterranean forest soils. Biological Fertility Soils, 35, 102–107.
Rossiter, D. (2003). Biophysical models in land evaluation. In W. Verheye (Ed.), 1.5 Land Use and Land Cover, Encyclopedia of Life Support System (EOLSS-UNESCO). Oxford: Eolss. Available at http://www.eolss.net.
Sojka, R. E., & Upchurch, D: R. (1999). Reservations regarding the soil quality concept. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 63, 1039–1054.
Storie, R. E. (1933). An index for rating the agricultural value of soils. California Agricultural Experimental Station Bulletin, 556.
Thies, J. E. (2006). Measuring and assessing soil biological properties. In: N. Uphoff, A. Ball, E. Fernandes, H. Herren, O. Husson, M. Laing, Ch. Palm, J. Pretty, P. Sanchez, N. Sanginga & J. Thies (Eds.), Biological approaches to sustainable soil systems (pp. 655–670). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis/CRC Press.
Thysen, I. (2000). Agriculture in the information society. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 76, 297–303.
Uphoff, N. (Ed.) (2002). Agro-ecological innovations: Increasing food production with participatory development. London: Earthscan.
Uphoff, N., Ball, A., Fernandes, E., Herren, H., Husson, O., Laing, M., Palm, Ch., Pretty, J., Sanchez, P., Sanginga, N., & Thies, J. (Eds.) (2006). Biological approaches to sustainable soil systems. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis/CRC Press.
USDA. (1961). Land capability classification. Agriculture handbook 210. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
USDA. (2006). Soil Quality Institute. Natural resources conservation service. Available at http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/. (Retrieved on 20 February 2006.)
Van Lanen, H. A. J. (1991). Qualitative and quantitative physical land evaluation: An operational approach. Ph.D. thesis. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen Agricultural University.
Verheye, W. (1988). The status of soil mapping and land evaluation for land use planning in the European Community. In: J. M. Boussard (Ed.), Agriculture: Socio-economic factors in land evaluation. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the EU.
Wallace, A. (1994). Soil organic matter must be restored to near original levels. Communications in Soil Science & Plant Analysis, 25, 29–35.
Warkentin, B. P. (1995). The changing concept of soil quality. Journal of Soil & Water Conservation, 50, 226–228.
Wischmeier, W. H., & Smith, D. D. (1965). Predicting rainfall erosion based from cropland east of the Rocky Mountains. Agriculture Handbook, 282. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Wolfe, D. (2006). Approaches to monitoring soil systems. In N. Uphoff, A. Ball, E. Fernandes, H. Herren, O. Husson, M. Laing, Ch. Palm, J. Pretty, P. Sanchez, N. Sanginga & J. Thies (Eds.), Biological approaches to sustainable soil systems (pp. 671–681). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis/CRC Press.
Zalidis, G., Stamatiadis, S., Takavakoglou, V., Eskridge, K., & Misopolinos, N. (2002). Impacts of agricultural practices on soil and water quality in the Mediterranean region and proposed assessment methodology. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 88, 137–146.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
de la Rosa, D., Sobral, R. (2008). Soil Quality and Methods for its Assessment. In: Braimoh, A.K., Vlek, P.L.G. (eds) Land Use and Soil Resources. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6778-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6778-5_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6777-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6778-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)