Land Quality Assessment and Monitoring:The Next Challenge for Soil Science

作     者：H.ESWARAN J.KIMBLE H. ESWARAN and J. KIMBLEU.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, PO Box 2890, Washington DC 20013 (USA)

作者机构：U.S.DepartmentofAgricultureNaturalResourcesConservationServicePOBox2890WashingtonDC20013（USA） U.S.DepartmentofAgricultureNaturalResourcesConservationServicePOBox2890Washington 

出 版 物：《Pedosphere》 (土壤圈（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2003年第13卷第1期

页      面：1-10页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0818[工学-地质资源与地质工程] 09[农学] 0903[农学-农业资源与环境] 083306[工学-城乡规划管理] 0901[农学-作物学] 0833[工学-城乡规划学] 

主　　题：degradation land quality monitoring of soils sustainable landmanagement 

摘      要：Sustainable land management (SLM) is the key to harmonizing environmental and ecological concernsof society with the economic realities of producing adequate food and fiber of high quality and ensuring abasic minimal quality of life. The aim of SLM is to maintain the integrity of the biophysical land resourcebase, but it can only be realized if land users understand the impacts of land management options on theirlands but also on other off-site areas and can optimize the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of theirchoice. To facilitate this, the contribution of soil survey organizations would be through the assessment andmonitoring of land quality. Land quality is a measure of the ability of land to perform specific functions and isderived by an integration of soil survey information with other environmental, and if necessary, socioeconomicinformation. The desired reliability influences the operational scale of the assessment. Such an assessmentwould assist in: 1) locating homologous areas for research sites or for transferring technologies; 2) providingthe geographic basis for systems analysis (e.g. by modeling); 3) serving as a basis for local, national andglobal resource assessment and monitoring; 4) providing an ecosystem context for land use, assessments oftemporal and spatial variability, and impact of human interventions; 5) serving as a framework for moredetailed assessment for all levels of interest; and 6) evaluating global issues such as food security, impacts ofclimate change, biodiversity monitoring, and addressing *** on an evaluation of the progress made in soil resource inventories and considering the demandsof the environment focused world, the paper considers the need for countries to mount such a program. Theauthors believe that this is the next demand of soil science and that we can fulfill our social contract byperiodically providing such information on the state of a nation s land resource.