Abstract. The soil quality and soil health concepts are widely used as soils receive more attention in the worldwide policy arena. So far, however, the distinction between the two concepts is unclear and operational procedures for measurement are still being developed. A proposal is made to focus soil health on actual soil conditions, as determined by a limited set of indicators that reflect favourable rooting conditions. In addition, soil quality can express inherent soil conditions in a given soil type (genoform) reflecting the effects of past and present soil management (expressed by various phenoforms). Soils contribute to ecosystem services that, in turn, contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and, more recently, to the EU Green Deal. Relevant soil ecosystem services are biomass production (SDG2: zero hunger), providing clean water (SDG6); climate mitigation by carbon capture and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (SDG13: climate action) and biodiversity preservation (SDG15: life on land). The use of simulation models for the soil-water-atmosphere-plant system is proposed as a quantitative and reproducible procedure to derive single values for soil health and soil quality for current and future climate conditions. Crop production parameters from the international: yield-gap program are used combined with soil-specific parameters expressing the effects of phenoforms. These procedures focus on the ecosystem service: biomass production Other ecosystem services are determined by soil-specific management to be based on experiences obtained in similar soils elsewhere or by new research. A case study, covering three Italian soil series, illustrates the application of the proposed concepts, showing that soil types (soil series) acted significantly different to effects of management also in their reaction to climate change.
SOIL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE EU AND UKRAINE