“Developing a Multifunctional Tree-structured Quality Index for Soil Management”,

Purpose – An extensive knowledge of soil characteristics and an awareness of the type and amount of pollutants present are essential to evaluate the utilization potential of soil resources for various land uses. On the other hand, for management and decision-making purpose, there is a need to develop concise indices in order to adequately express the overall quality of soil resources. The aim of this study was to introduce a flexible soil quality index system, mainly based on fertility and the presence of pollutants. Design/methodology/approach – A tree-structured approach was adopted, leading to a concise final index from various intermediate sub-indices. More specifically, a number of physical-chemical-biological parameters lead to an agronomic quality index (AQI). Another group of parameters referring to polluting substances of various origins are combined to give a multifunctional quality index (MQI). AQI and MQI are then coupled into an overall general quality index. The proposed model was implemented by using a set of data concerning various specific sites throughout Italy. Findings – The proposed methodology proved useful in providing valuable and quick information about the overall soil quality performance and its main sources, and in helping to balance the contrasting needs of obtaining concise quantitative information, on the one hand, and of minimizing the inevitable loss of information inherent in every process of synthesis, on the other hand. Originality/value – This paper presents an innovative quality index structure for the environmental and multifunctional management of soil, whose main value is related to its flexibility (e.g. different number and kind of parameters, various levels of aggregation) which makes it applicable to various contexts.