An overview of a land evaluation in the context of ecosystem services

Abstract

The environment is changing quickly and it is ever more burdened in connection with the greater needs of human society. This fact has increased efforts to improve the management of land and natural resources and the necessity to evaluate them. Land valuations become more important as the land consumption increases. Soil needs to be evaluated in the whole context of how its quality is affected and the values it provides. The concept of ecosystem services offers this holistic view. This paper defines ecosystem services (ES), the various linkages between soil properties, their functions and benefits, the assessment of soil quality using indicators and then briefly mentions EU environmental assessment methods and terms used in the context of ES. The article also mentions frameworks with which to assess and evaluate the soil quality that can be divided into two groups. The first group is comprised of a framework of indicators that describe the current state of the soil system assessment for evaluating the quality of the agricultural land. This is based on a detailed measurement of the terrain, a statistical analysis of soil databases or processing the status of specific threats to the soil. The second group is comprised of a framework of indicators focused on changes in the soil quality and applied soil management. These frameworks deal with the productivity of the soil in various systems of farming, compare agricultural systems or discuss the advantages of soil biota as indicators of soil quality in detail. Many of the designs of the soil quality indicators focus on the soil management in the context of a single discipline such as agriculture or water pollution. There are concepts for considering the soil quality in regional planning.

Erosion risk analysis in a changing climate

“…Soil protection within the EU has become a key issue in recent decades and will remain a key issue in the future (Janků et al 2022). Many studies address the future impact of climate change on soil erosion risks, soil management and changes in cropping patterns.…”

Effects of Agri-Environment Schemes in Terms of the Results for Soil, Water and Soil Organic Matter in Central and Eastern Europe

“…Our study concurs with the knowledge that adverse maintenance of agricultural land, with the effect of worsening soil erosion, also means a greater potential loss of soil organic matter (Vávra et al, 2019 [61]). Soil conservation hence affects ecosystem services [62] and soil water and soil carbon storage [63]. However, we argue that it is urgently necessary to develop accurate and climate-proof soil organic carbon indicators that need to be plausibly implemented into the monitoring and verification of agri-environment schemes.…”

Interpreting Different Narratives about Land Services and Land Use Economics of Common Agricultural Policy

“…The economics of land services has been explained in general [63] and further elaborated for agriculture [64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]. As a recognized think piece, it is an important part of Pillar 1 economics.…”