Obtaining soil and land quality indicators using research chains and geostatistical methods

Soil and land quality indicators play an important role in the assessment and evaluation of soil and land quality. In contrast with the general definitions of soil and land quality, working with indicators demands a better awareness of at which scale level measurements were made, at which scale calculations and models were developed and validated, and at which scale answers are needed. We propose that soil and land quality indicators may be classified by three characteristics: 1) scale level, 2) complexity, and 3) transferability. Each characteristic is represented by an axis in the Soil and Land Quality Indicator Diagram.