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Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. " Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integrated approach to support soil-related policies of the European Union ", EUR 22721 EN. 40 pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. .
Soil quality reflects how well a soil performs the functions of maintaining biodiversity and productivity, partitioning water and solute flow, filtering and buffering, nutrient cycle, and providing support for plants and other structures. Soil management has a major impact on soil quality.
Soil quality relates to soil functions. Unlike water or air, for which established standards have been set, soil quality is difficult to define or quantify.
Soil quality is primarily measured by chemical, physical, and biological indicators because soil function cannot easily be measured directly. Each of these categories comprises several indicators that provide insight into overall soil quality. There are very few soil quality monitoring systems that can provide near real-time information on these indicators but almost all of these systems are currently reported only to the research level.M. Sophocleous et al., "A Stand-Alone, In Situ, Soil Quality Sensing System for Precision Agriculture," in IEEE Transactions on AgriFood Electronics, doi: 10.1109/TAFE.2024.3351953.
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