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Global changes push to set up strategies able to mitigate and adapt agricultural and forest crops to environmental variability, and the sustainable intensification of production processes under agricultural and forestry systems is one of the approaches mainly supported. In Italy biomass and biogas are the renewable energy sources that have shown the greatest potential for growth in recent years. In this context, during the XV National Congress held in Bolzano in February 2018, the Italian Association of Agricultural Scientific Societies has promoted an analysis about potentialities and limits of the sustainable intensification of agricultural and forestry systems for bioenergy production. This document reports the outcome, in the form of a commented discussion, on the main evidences and proposals from technical-scientific and operational points of view.

This study focuses on soil physical aspects of soil quality and health with the objective to define procedures with worldwide rather than only regional applicability, reflecting modern developments in soil physical and agronomic research and addressing important questions regarding possible effects of soil degradation and climate change. In contrast to water and air, soils cannot, even after much research, be characterized by a universally accepted quality definition and this hampers the internal and external communication process. Soil quality expresses the capacity of the soil to function. Biomass production is a primary function, next to filtering and organic matter accumulation, and can be modeled with soil–water–atmosphere–plant (SWAP) simulation models, as used in the agronomic yield-gap program that defines potential yields (Yp) for any location on earth determined by radiation, temperature and standardized crop characteristics, assuming adequate water and nutrient supply and lack of pests and diseases. The water-limited yield (Yw) reflects, in addition, the often limited water availability at a particular location. Actual yields (Ya) can be considered in relation to Yw to indicate yield gaps, to be expressed in terms of the indicator (Ya/Yw)×100. Soil data to calculate Yw for a given soil type (the genoform) should consist of a range of soil properties as a function of past management (various phenoforms) rather than as a single representative dataset. This way a Yw-based characteristic soil quality range for every soil type is defined, based on semipermanent soil properties. In this study effects of subsoil compaction, overland flow following surface compaction and erosion were simulated for six soil series in the Destra Sele area in Italy, including effects of climate change. Recent proposals consider soil health, which appeals more to people than soil quality and is now defined by separate soil physical, chemical and biological indicators. Focusing on the soil function biomass production, physical soil health at a given time of a given type of soil can be expressed as a point (defined by a measured Ya) on the defined soil quality range for that particular type of soil, thereby defining the seriousness of the problem and the scope for improvement. The six soils showed different behavior following the three types of land degradation and projected climate change up to the year 2100. Effects are expected to be major as reductions of biomass production of up to 50 % appear likely under the scenarios. Rather than consider soil physical, chemical and biological indicators separately, as proposed now elsewhere for soil health, a sequential procedure is discussed, logically linking the separate procedures.

An integrated investigation has been carried out over the soils involved in the landslide phenomena occurred in the 2006 at Mt. Vezzi in the Ischia island (southern Italy). Chemical, physical (i.e. particle size distribution, hydrological analyses and direct measurements of soil porosity), mineralogical and micromorphological properties of three soil profiles selected in two of the main detachment crowns were analysed. The studied soils, having a volcanic origin, showed a substantial abrupt discontinuity of all the studied properties in correspondence of the 2C horizon, also identified as sliding surface of the landslide phenomena. With respect to the above horizons, the 2C showed (i) as a grey fine ash, almost pumices free, with a silt content increased by the 20%, (ii) ks values one order of magnitude lower, (iii) a porosity concentrated in the small size (15 to 30 μm modal class) pores characterized by very low percolation threshold (around 15–25 μm), (iv) occurrence of expandable clay minerals and (v) higher Na content in the exchange complex. Therefore, most of these properties indicated 2C as a lower permeability horizon than the above. Nevertheless, only the identification of a thin (6.5 mm) finely stratified ash layer on the top of 2C enabled to assume this interface as an impeding layer to vertical and horizontal water fluxes, as testified by the hydromorphic features (e.g. Fe / Mn concretions) within and on the top of the layer. Despite the Mt. Vezzi soil environment has many properties (high gradient northern facing slope, similar forestry, volcanic origin of the parent material) in common with those of many Campania debris-mud flows, the results of this study did not support the found relationship between Andosols and debris-mudflows, but emphasize the role of vertical discontinuities as landslide predisposing factor.

This paper aims to test a new physically oriented approach to viticulture zoning at the farm scale, strongly rooted on hydropedology and aiming to achieve a better use of environmental features with respect to plant requirement and wine production. The physics of our approach is defined by the use of soil-plant-atmosphere simulation models which applies physically-based equations to describe the soil hydrological processes and solves soil-plant water status. This study (ZOVISA project) was conducted in a farm devoted to high quality wines production (Aglianico DOC), located in South Italy (Campania region, Mirabella Eclano-AV). The soil spatial distribution was obtained after standard soil survey informed by geophysical survey. Two Homogenous Zones (HZs) were identified; in each one of those a physically based model was applied to solve the soil water balance and estimate the soil functional behaviour (crop water stress index, CWSI) defining the functional Homogeneous Zones (fHzs). In these last, experimental plots were established and monitored for investigating soil-plant water status, crop development (biometric and physiological parameters) and daily climate variables (temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, wind). The effects of crop water status on crop response over must and wine quality were then evaluated in the fHZs. This was performed by comparing crop water stress with (i) crop physiological measurement (leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll a fluorescence, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, LAI measurement), (ii) grape bunches measurements (berry weight, sugar content, titratable acidity, etc.) and (iii) wine quality (aromatic response). Eventually this experiment has proved the usefulness of the physical based approach also in the case of mapping viticulture microzoning.

The first results of the LIFE+ SOILCONSWEB project that aims to combine digital soil mapping, soil modeling, digital soil databases and land assessment to produce, to test and to apply a Spatial Decision Supporting System (S-DSS) are shown. The practical focus of this system is to support (stakeholders) decision on landscape issues aiming to both the best soil conservation and agricultural land management. The S-DSS system is being developed, tested and applied in an area of about 20,000 hectares in South Italy (Valle Telesina, province of Benevento in the Campania region). The system acknowledge that soils and landscapes have the well recognized "multiple functions" as a fundamental feature. Then it is not surprising that this decision supporting system requires, as fundamental feature, to include and mix many different high quality digital information, engine and processing in order to be successfully applied. Our web-based S-DSS system includes modeling procedures at different level of complexity. Here we present tools calculating soil water/solute balance using Richards' based modeling on benchmark soils of the different 47 soil types. This Soil-Plant-Atmosphere (SPA) modeling is used for different purposes including among others (i) estimate of vineyard water stress (affecting wine quality), (ii) estimate of loss of hydrological soil function due to soil sealing, (iii) soil protective capacity towards groundwater pollution expressed by the outflow/inflow ratio. The SPA model is based on the original desktop based SWAP model (Kroes et al, 2008) and enables to be run "on the fly" through the web S-DSS system. The user at this stage can choose between different options including: area (farm, municipality, district, or just drawing the polygon of interest), crop (olive, grapes, maize, bare soil) and date interval for the simulation run. Others options will be further implemented. The S-DSS system every day acquires spatialized data for the upper boundary condition (rainfall and temperatures to estimate ET0 by the Heargraves model) as input for the SPA model running. Hydraulic properties of each soil horizon of the 47 soil profiles were measured in the laboratory by the Wind's method and estimated through HYPRES PTF. Water retention and hydraulic conductivity relationships were parameterized according to the van Genuchten-Mualem model; lab-derived parameters were scaled to field condition by taking into account the coarse fragment content (from the pedological survey) and the hysteretic field behavior of the soil water retention curve. Initial condition was set to h=-50 cm along the soil profile. The simulation starts the 1st January 2011 to manage uncertainty in initial conditions setting. Examples of outcomes are the soil water storage at different depths, inflow/outflow ratio, ETa/ET0, but many others can be implemented, showing the potentiality of the system to allow different scenarios in many field of interest where the balance of the water in the system soil-plant-atmosphere is required. Then decision makers (individuals, groups of interests and public bodies) can have real-time (or near real-time) access to critical, accurate, complete and up-to-date spatial data/output models held/processed in multiple data stores. The system produce detailed spatial documents, report and maps on a series of questions including agriculture, environment and climate change. The tool is available at www.landconsultingweb.eu/.

The role of soil water status on crop vine responses in terms of grape quality responses (sugar, acidity, poliphenols, antocians, etc.) is widely discussed in literature, but the ensemble of processes involved, their quantification and management options is generally not examined. For these reasons the use of physically based soil-plant-atmosphere hydrological model can represent an useful tool to study and evaluate effects of soil-water and plant processes in order to (i) analyse the crop water stress, (ii) relate it to wine quality and therefore (iii) improve the classification of landscape addressed to the grapevine and wine with high quality suggesting also management options. In this way we tested a new physically oriented approach to terroir analysis, based on the use of the soil-plant-atmosphere simulation models in viticultural zoning. The study was conducted in the farm Quintodecimo located in Mirabella Eclano (AV), Southern Italy, and devoted to quality wines production (Aglianico DOC). The soil spatial distribution was recognized through geophysical analysis and classical methodologies; then the soil-plant water status was monitored in two experimental plots from two very different soils spacing 60 meters apart along a slope. Hydraulic properties of the soil horizons were measured in the laboratory by the Wind's method. Daily soil water variables (through TDR probes and tensiometers installed at different depths), crop development (biometric and physiological parameters) and daily climate variables (temperature, solar radiation, rainfall, wind) were monitored along two years. The agro-hydrological model SWAP was calibrated and validated on the soil water content data. Then it was applied to estimate soil-plant water status in different crop phenological stages, being anyone of these stages crucial for specific grape quality responses. The effects of crop water status on crop response and wine quality was evaluated in the two different soil types occurring in two different geomorphic settings (upslope and downslope positions), comparing the crop water stress index with: crop physiological measurement (leaf gas exchange, chlorophyll-? fluorescence, leaf water potential, chlorophyll content, LAI measurement), grape bunches measurement (berry weight, sugar content, titrable acidity, etc.) and wine quality (aromatic response).

Le discipline scientifiche applicate al sistema suolo-pianta-atmosfera hanno sempre avuto la pretesa di dare risposte tecniche e scientifiche circa la migliore gestione del territorio ed in particolare del paesaggio forestale. A dispetto di questo sforzo non sempre i risultati prodotti hanno avuto un forte impatto sulle problematiche da affrontare. Inoltre la situazione attuale del sistema di ricerca, che vede una spinta specializzazione e parcellizzazione del sapere, vede incrementarsi la distanza tra gli scienziati e chi gestisce il paesaggio con l'evidente rischio di delegare ad altre professionalità l'analisi ed il supporto alla gestione del paesaggio. Per difendere il paesaggio agrario e forestale dalle attuali gravi minacce di degrado è quindi necessario fare qualcosa di diverso. Noi riteniamo che sia necessario sviluppare e mettere a sistema un sapere integrato sul sistema suolo-pianta-atmosfera alla scala territoriale per meglio contribuire alla gestione ed alla difesa del paesaggio. Tale sistema deve necessariamente includere la quantificazione della multifunzionalità del suolo e del paesaggio e la potenziale partecipazione "bottom-up" nella governance del territorio. In questo contesto il recentissimo sviluppo di sistemi spaziali di supporto alle decisioni sviluppati attraverso il Web, rappresenta una grande opportunità ed un banco di prova per tutte le scienze agrarie applicate al territorio, al fine di fornire strumenti integrati, operativi e coerenti di supporto a chi quotidianamente vive e gestisce il paesaggio. Il lavoro che qui presentiamo punta ad illustrare alcune applicazioni, tra cui quelle relative all'olivicoltura, di un sistema spaziale web-based di supporto alle decisioni costruito nell'ambito del progetto interdisciplinare europeo Life+ SOILCONSWEB. Il sistema è basato su una piattaforma di sviluppo, ricerca e divulgazione del tipo "cyberinfrastructure" che supporta l'acquisizione avanzata di dati e la loro archiviazione, gestione ed integrazione, il data mining, la visualizzazione dei dati ed applicazioni informatiche "on the fly" per poter effettuare simulazioni modellistiche; il tutto accessibile liberamente tramite internet. Il sistema fornisce, per un caso studio di 20,000 ha (Valle Telesina), informazioni accurate su aspetti riguardanti agricoltura, foreste, ambiente e pianificazione del territorio. In particolare per l'olivicoltura sono al momento implementati alcuni strati informativi fra cui: la conoscenza dei suoli del proprio territorio olivicolo, la durata della stagione vegetativa, le escursioni termiche giornaliere, le sommatorie termiche attive, la mappatura della radiazione solare.

This paper addresses the following points: how can whole soil data from normally available soil mapping databases (both conventional and those integrated by digital soil mapping procedures) be usefully employed in hydrology? Answering this question requires a detailed knowledge of the quality and quantity of information embedded in and behind a soil map. To this end a description of the process of drafting soil maps was prepared (which is included in Appendix A of this paper). Then a detailed screening of content and availability of soil maps and database was performed, with the objective of an analytical evaluation of the potential and the limitations of soil data obtained through soil surveys and soil mapping. Then we reclassified the soil features according to their direct, indirect or low hydrologic relevance. During this phase, we also included information regarding whether this data was obtained by qualitative, semi-quantitative or quantitative methods. The analysis was performed according to two main points of concern: (i) the hydrological interpretation of the soil data and (ii) the quality of the estimate or measurement of the soil feature. The interaction between pedology and hydrology processes representation was developed through the following Italian case studies with different hydropedological inputs: (i) comparative land evaluation models, by means of an exhaustive itinerary from simple to complex modelling applications depending on soil data availability, (ii) mapping of soil hydrological behaviour for irrigation management at the district scale, where the main hydropedological input was the application of calibrated pedo-transfer functions and the Hydrological Function Unit concept, and (iii) flood event simulation in an ungauged basin, with the functional aggregation of different soil units for a simplified soil pattern. In conclusion, we show that special care is required in handling data from soil databases if full potential is to be achieved. Further, all the case studies agree on the appropriate degree of complexity of the soil hydrological model to be applied. We also emphasise that effective interaction between pedology and hydrology to address landscape hydrology requires (i) greater awareness of the hydrological community about the type of soil information behind a soil map or a soil database, (ii) the development of a better quantitative framework by the pedological community for evaluating hydrological features, and (iii) quantitative information on soil spatial variability.

Use of saline water for irrigation is a widely diffused practice in the whole Mediterranean area and crust formation on soil surface is an unavoidable consequence which affects more or less negatively many agricultural systems in such area. Crust-like soil structure is very difficult to be characterized with only hydrological approach. This is mainly related to i) the size and shape of the crust samples which do not fit well with lab methods and ii) the expected anisotropy in the horizon after the crusting which generates a lot of uncertainties in hydraulic properties measurements. In order to find relationships between pore geometry and unsaturated water conductivity, field measurement on plots irrigated with saline and plain water were carried out in a Vertic Xerochrept soil from South Italy by means of a disk tension infiltrometer. After the measurements, first 15 cm of undisturbed soil under the disk and 2 cm thick isolated crusts have been sampled for pore image analysis. New image analysis procedures, based on mathematical morphology algorithms, have allowed a detailed quantitative description of the soil pore space in terms of both shape and size distribution at a pixel resolution of 10 microns. The pore-size distribution of the 15 cm thick samples has been used to calculate the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity applying a series-parallel model based on water flow through capillary tubes (Childs and Collis-George modeltype) where the power factor encompassing the effects of pores shape and tortuosity has been calibrated on the k(h) measured curve. Once calibrated, the computational model has then been applied on the pore size distribution obtained from the soil crusts. The segmentation of the sample, because of the crusting in two distinct horizontal layers (the crusted and the original), produced two very dissimilar k(h). The different behaviour has been confirmed also in terms of sorptivity which was measured on the crusts by a lab device and on the uncrusted soil by the tension infiltrometer data in the field. The quantitative analyses performed on soil microfabrics combined with soil the hydrology measurements have showed to be very useful i) to interpret the physical behaviour of soil surface crusts allowing partial reformulation of the current reference models and ii) to give more reliability to otherwise uncertain field measurement results.

Il suolo è un sistema naturale caratterizzato da una complessa varietà di componenti e di fenomeni fisici, chimici e biologici. Tali fenomeni, agendo a scale diverse, necessitano di tecniche d'indagine che possibilmente possano essere applicate ad un ampio intervallo di risoluzione spaziale. La micromorfologia del suolo risponde a questa esigenze riuscendo ad analizzare la realtà del sistema suolo in un intervallo di risoluzione spaziale tra i 10-1 ed i 10-7 m. Tale grande potenzialità non deve nascondere la notevole complessità che sottende molte delle fasi dei processi di campionamento, impregnazione e lavorazione dei campioni micromorfologici. In sintesi la micromorfologia del suolo può quindi essere definita come un metodo moderno di studio di campioni indisturbati che attraverso osservazioni dirette e l'applicazione di tecniche microscopiche (ad es. OM) e submicroscopiche (ad es. SEM, TEM, HRTEM) identifica i differenti costituenti del suolo e ne determina le relazioni reciproche nello spazio e, in taluni casi, nel tempo. Nel presente lavoro, con l'aiuto di un sussidio audiovisivo, si descrive l'approccio usato dal Laboratorio di Micromorfologia del CNR ISAFoM che si articola nelle seguenti fasi: o Scelta delle dimensioni del campione e della modalità di campionamento; o Campionamento o Rimozione dell'acqua dai campioni; o Impregnazione con resine; o Lavorazione meccanica del blocco polimerizzato; o Lavorazione della sezione sottile; oDescrizione macroscopica e microscopica della sezione sottile.

Changes on soil structure due to agronomic practices have been traditionally studied using many different methods. Among these latter, image analysis techniques have been proved specially useful for their capability to directly describe shape and organization of the pores. Usually investigations consider 2D-sections of soil and "object-oriented" image analysis. In the present work some different soils, under different cultivation and irrigation techniques are studied by using a new approach in porosity analysis, based on algorithms of mathematical morphology. In some cases the performed analysis has regarded three-dimensional images of soil which were obtained by using a new technique of mechanical tomography. Results on the examinated study cases, show that the proposed approach can provide great contribution in (ì) quantifying effects on soil structure due to agronomic management and (ìì) seeking for effective soil quality indexes

A mechanical tomography system aiming at achieving 3D reconstruction and analysis of the soil structure is described in this paper. Undisturbed soil samples are impregnated with a polyester or epoxy resin after a dehydration treatment. A fluorescent dye is added in the resin. The hardened soil blocks are ground under a high precision (1?m) surface-grinding machine and 2D images of serial sections are acquired using a digital photo scanner (3600?2700 pixels). The information on the 2D sections is rearranged on a SGI Indigo 2 graphic workstation in order to reconstruct a 3D image of the soil block. Reconstruction is made using 2D sections spaced by the same amount of the pixel size allowing a reliable 3D representation of the soil with an isotropic grid of voxels. Analysis on porosity, pore size distribution, connectivity etc. can than be performed using algorithms of mathematical morphology. Discussion on the results on a trial experiment demonstrates that the system offers an useful instrument to obtain information on 3D organisation of the soil structure.

A characterisation of the soil structure has been produced on 6 selected volcanic soils from Italy, Portugal and Spain. Field morphology, micromorphology, image analysis and water retention measurements have been used in order to perform such analysis. The image analysis work, produced by using a recent methodological approach, has proved the relevance in using the pore size distribution as a powerful tool in order to understand (i) the functional properties of soil structure and the (ii) anthropic influence on soil structure. The comparison of field morphology, micromorphology, image analysis on the 6 profiles has proved that major differences in results exist between field method and the other methods; such differences seem to rely on the assumption behind the different analysis. Classical micromorphological description has proved to be in good agreement with the image analysis results. Pore (equivalent) size distribution obtained by the water retention measurements, performed in one case study, has also proved to be in agreement with the image analysis results.