摘要
Sustainable land management (SLM) is the key to harmonizing environmental and ecological concernsof society with the economic realities of producing adequate food and fiber of high quality and ensuring abasic minimal quality of life. The aim of SLM is to maintain the integrity of the biophysical land resourcebase, but it can only be realized if land users understand the impacts of land management options on theirlands but also on other off-site areas and can optimize the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of theirchoice. To facilitate this, the contribution of soil survey organizations would be through the assessment andmonitoring of land quality. Land quality is a measure of the ability of land to perform specific functions and isderived by an integration of soil survey information with other environmental, and if necessary, socioeconomicinformation. The desired reliability influences the operational scale of the assessment. Such an assessmentwould assist in: 1) locating homologous areas for research sites or for transferring technologies; 2) providingthe geographic basis for systems analysis (e.g. by modeling); 3) serving as a basis for local, national andglobal resource assessment and monitoring; 4) providing an ecosystem context for land use, assessments oftemporal and spatial variability, and impact of human interventions; 5) serving as a framework for moredetailed assessment for all levels of interest; and 6) evaluating global issues such as food security, impacts ofclimate change, biodiversity monitoring, and addressing desertification.Based on an evaluation of the progress made in soil resource inventories and considering the demandsof the environment focused world, the paper considers the need for countries to mount such a program. Theauthors believe that this is the next demand of soil science and that we can fulfill our social contract byperiodically providing such information on the state of a nation's land resource.
Sustainable land management (SLM) is the key to harmonizing environmental andecological concerns of society with the economic realities of producing adequate food and fiber ofhigh quality and ensuring a basic minimal quality of life. The aim of SLM is to maintain theintegrity of the biophysical land resource base, but it can only be realized if land usersunderstand the impacts of land management options on their lands but also on other off-site areasand can optimize the socioeconomic and environmental benefits of their choice. To facilitate this,the contribution of soil survey organizations would be through the assessment and monitoring of landquality. Land quality is a measure of the ability of land to perform specific functions and isderived by an integration of soil survey information with other environmental, and if necessary,socioeconomic information. The desired reliability influences the operational scale of theassessment. Such an assessment would assist in: 1) locating homologous areas for research sites orfor transferring technologies; 2) providing the geographic basis for systems analysis (e.g. bymodeling); 3) serving as a basis for local, national and global resource assessment and monitoring;4) providing an ecosystem context for land use, assessments of temporal and spatial variability, andimpact of human interventions; 5) serving as a framework for more detailed assessment for alllevels of interest; and 6) evaluating global issues such as food security, impacts of climatechange, biodiversity monitoring, and addressing desertification. Based on an evaluation of theprogress made in soil resource inventories and considering the demands of the environment focusedworld, the paper considers the need for countries to mount such a program. The authors believe thatthis is the next demand of soil science and that we can fulfill our social contract by periodicallyproviding such information on the state of a nation's land resource.
