Ontwikkeling Soil Health Index voor Nederland (KB-24-004-023.01)

National and international attention for sustainable land use is increasing enormously. Many landowners such as farmers, real estate owners, water winning companies and provinces are busy implementing measures to improve sustainability. Moreover, people are becoming increasingly aware that the soil is a dynamic system; the soil ecosystem, where physical, chemical and biological properties influence each other.

In order to determine the soil quality in an objective manner, there is a great need for one unambiguous method to measure and assess the soil physically, chemically and biologically integrally.

There is a great need for an unambiguous and practicable set of indicators and widely applicable instruments to make soil quality (chemical, physical and biological) transparent and measurable for users. With the Soil Health Index, soil quality can be scientifically substantiated and objectively recorded. In addition, the SHI can be used to give advice with which the soil quality can be preserved. Moreover, the SHI can be used to monitor the effectiveness of soil management, both at field and area level.

The SHI is a method that represents an overall soil health by means of a score of between 0 and 100. The SHI is built up by simultaneously measuring a limited number (preferably 12-15) of physical, biological and chemical soil properties. In this way, the most important characteristics regarding the soil health of the Ecosystem soil are measured objectively.

The SHI then offers measures to improve the soil for the short and long term. The way of reporting (report / index figure, colors, and advice) makes the SHI fast, relatively inexpensive and extremely suitable for large-scale take-up by farmers and other land managers, for example, at field and area level.

This KB-WOT project will focus on the first part of the original project plan; the selection of the Physical, Biological and Chemical SHI parameters.