New Insights in Soil Quality and Management

Dear Colleagues,

Soil is one of the most relevant and influential system components as a regulator of ecosystem services and functions. It is a central component in the regulation of nutrient cycles, the control and buffering of contamination (food security and water quality), as well as the control and regulation of the C cycle, among others. Methods used to determine soil quality and soil management, according to different sources of impacts, such as polymetallic contamination, pesticides, forest fires, desertification, erosion, etc., are constantly evolving and innovating. The biological component of soils and its interrelation with physico-chemical properties, as well as the use of new non-invasive or destructive determination techniques, such as remote sensing, to infer diverse soil properties, are some of the current advances that intervene in decision-making processes and help to improve soil quality indicators and soil management.

This Special Issue aims to present the most relevant advances in the following: different indicators and modes of soil management, such as the establishment of quality indicators (physical, chemical, or biological) in soils, as well as indicators and indices of risk in relation to different ecosystem and human health disturbances; the creation of predictive models of soil quality and management using remote sensing and AI techniques; the development of indicators and sensors for determining soil quality; methods of soil quality assessment; and the various strategies and forms of sustainable soil management. Studies are encouraged to consider applied solutions in the fields of agriculture, forestry, industry, and mining, as well as to explore urban soils in real situations and medium–long-term studies.

Dr. Diego Arán
Dr. Erika S. Santos
Prof. Dr. Joaquim Esteves Da Silva
Guest Editors

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• soil quality
• soil management
• environmental and human risk
• ecosystem services
• environmental geochemistry
• remote sensing
• preditive models
• nature-based techniques