scope:

This proposed international standard provides a framework for the detailed assessment and monitoring of dynamic soil properties related to soil function with concomitant recording of in-situ static soil properties, landscape, land use and soil management practices that influence function at the time the data were collected. It is applicable to the assessment of soil quality in agricultural landscapes, contaminated sites and natural soil ecosystems at plot, field and landscape spatial scales. It can also be applied in the development of dynamic properties databases to enhance existing soil survey databases for estimation of carbon stocks in soils, sustainable agriculture, landscape management etc. The framework incorporates coding based on soil taxonomic principles, however it shall not supersede, and should not be confused with, international or national soil classification systems. Although the soil quality description framework has been developed to describe surface soils, the same principles of the framework can be applied to adapt it to describe subsurface soil horizons.