Preconditions for the Sustainable Development of Agroecosystems: Good Agricultural Practices and Monitoring of Soil Conditions and Land Cover Changes

Dear Colleagues,

1. Introduction

Soil is one of the key components that determine not only the characteristics of the landscape, but also the manner and intensity of its use, and thus the problems and risks associated with it. Research on soil properties and their changes in the context of economic activities is essential. They allow for qualitative changes in the SOC, nutrients, GHG emissions, density and other soil physical properties to be assessed. This is a major focus of agronomy and ecology. However, in order to achieve the objectives of "green deal" policies and promote sustainable resource use, it is important to look at the regulation of soil use intensity through the prism of environmental policy. One of the most relevant issues in this field is spatial planning (particularly agroecosystem planning) and the development of systems for monitoring the results of economic planning and its impact on soil and the agroecosystem in general. The lack of soil research data utilization and agricultural good practice is a major problem in agroecosystem planning. Planning results that are not based on these data are difficult to implement in practice.

The main problems associated with soil monitoring systems are related to the uncertainty of the indicators they use and the variety of existing environmental monitoring systems that operate in parallel. These systems are based on different methodological approaches and therefore cannot objectively assess changes in the soil quality.

Addressing these challenges has become key for assessing the successful implementation of "green deal" policy.

2. Aim of the Special Issue

The aim of this Special Issue is to discuss good soil management practices in agriculture, the importance of current data and soil monitoring systems for objectively assessing the impact of farming activities on the sustainable development of agroecosystems, and to make recommendations to reconcile the principles of agroecosystem use and conservation. New conceptual approaches that can be applied in agriculture and spatial planning are a priority.

3. Suggest themes

Indicators of soil quality.

Different agrosystems and their impact on soil physico-chemical properties.

Influence of different tillage systems on soil quality indicators

Ecological land use planning for the development of ecological compensation functions of natural frameworks in different agroecosystems.

Land management and spatial planning principles of sustainable agroecosystem creation and development.

Soil quality monitoring systems, their indicators and principles and examples of their application.

New concepts for the sustainable development and use of landscape and agroecosystems.

Dr. Jonas Volungevičius
Dr. Kristina Amalevičiūtė-Volungė
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.