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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.

A paradigm shift for soil scientists and public institutions is nowadays crucial to overcome current disciplinary and policy fragmentation over soil issues. It has been proved that decision support systems can offer operational and integrated soil functions knowledge which can be used directly and freely by any end-user. The LANDSUPPORT H2020 project aims at building a web-based smart geoSpatial Decision Support System (S-DSS) which shall provide a powerful set of tools devoted to (i) support sustainable agriculture and forestry, (ii) evaluate trade-off between land uses and (iii) contribute to the implementation, impact and delivery of about 20 European land policies and selected 2030 UN SDGs. One specific tool is under development to support sustainable forestry as required by EU Forestry Strategy by adopting best forest practices with a strong focus on soil management. LANDSUPPORT will use EO data and simulation modelling to: a) map forest productivity; b) identify forest best practices to increase climate change resilience; c) assess the impact of selected forest best practices indicators and criteria with modelling applications; d) quantify forest and soil- related ecosystem services. The above-mentioned objectives will be achieved through the integration of existing databases and the development of high-performance modelling chains. The forestry tool will work at different geographic scales including: 1) European scale; 2) Member States scale (Austria, Italy, Hungary); 3) Regional scale (Campania Region, Keszthely and Marchfeld); 4) local scale (Telesina Valley, Keszthely Mountain). LANDSUPPORT aims so far at supporting and fostering decision-making process in forest planning and land management.

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.

Soil Taxonomy differs from other international soil classification systems because it includes the estimation of the soil moisture regime (SMR) and is primarily based on the estimation of dry days in a soil moisture control section (SMCS). Alternatively, the International Committee on Soil Moisture and Temperature Regimes (ICOMMOTR) has proposed a new approach based on biweekly soil water potential values determined at a fixed depth. Currently, SMR estimation is performed through simple models (standard approaches), such as the Newhall and Billaux models, that are not physically based. The aims of this work were to test the appropriateness of both standard Soil Taxonomy and the ICOMMOTR approaches through the use of a hydrologic model based on the Richards equation (SWAP), and to evaluate possible SMR classification alternatives. The SWAP-derived SMR classifications were compared with those derived by standard approaches, as well as the ICOMMOTR proposals, under eight pedoclimatic conditions (southern and northern Italy) where the SWAP model was calibrated and validated. The standard approaches clearly overestimated the dry conditions in the SMCS. Being mainly climate based, however, they were able to separate different pedoclimatic settings. In contrast, the physically based approach showed realistic results in terms ofSMR estimation but did not differentiate pedoclimatic settings for either Soil Taxonomy or ICOMMOTR approaches. Three possible alternatives to SMR classification were investigated: (i) applying the ICOMMOTR classification approach supported by the use of hydrologic Richards-based models; (ii) changing the rules of Soil Taxonomy for classifying SMR and SMCS to better fit "real" soil hydrologic behavior; and (iii) continuing to apply Newhall and Billaux models but clearly clarifying their climate-driven criteria.

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 total contents and the chemical and mineralogical forms of the metals Fe, Al, Cu, Co, Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni and Mn in the horizons of a soil profile, representative of an area devoted to stocking raw materials in the dismantled iron-steel industrial plant of ILVA of Bagnoli (Naples), were studied by physical and chemical methods. The geological setting of the study area is the result of volcanic activity in the Phlegrean Fields, a group of polygenic volcanoes to the west of Naples, which give rise to the parent soil material. Soil morphology appeared to be strongly disturbed by the occurrence and stratification of materials used in the industrial process. Fine sediments illuviation down the profile resulted in the occurrence of silt and clay coatings. The total contents of Cu, Co, Cr, Pb, Zn and Ni, in the whole soil samples, especially in the surface layers, were above the regulatory levels (Cu 120, Co 20, Cr 150, Pb 100, Zn 150, Ni 120 mg kg(-1)) stated by the Italian Ministry of Environment for soils in public, private and residential areas, and below the levels (Cu 600, Co 250, Cr 800, Pb 1000, Zn 1500, Ni 500 mg kg(-1)) outlined for soils and subsoils of industrial and commercial areas (Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, 1999). Speciation of heavy metals and the determination of the different chemical pools in the fraction2 mm identified the large presence of elements trapped in the mineralogical structure of oxides and silicates and occluded in easily reducible manganese or iron oxides. A constant amount of Cu was associated with organic compounds. A significant amount of Zn (20%) was extracted in diluted acetic acid solution, indicating that the element was present in a more readily and potentially available form. In the clay fraction (2 microm) heavy metals were associated with both amorphous and crystalline iron forms. The presence of iron-rich clay coatings was evident in the illuvial pores of deeper horizons. Enrichment in Cu, Co, Cr and Zn of the coatings was observed. Possible translocation of metals down through the soil profile mainly bound to fine particles of relatively inert forms of iron is hypothesised. The dispersion in water of the clay fraction resulted in an average percentage dispersion of approximately 20% with a peak of 41.7% at 68-72 cm depth. Magnetite, goethite, hematite, calcite and quartz mixed with K-feldspars, clynopyroxenes and mica occurred in the coarse sand fractions (2-0.2 mm) of the soil samples from all the surface horizons. Talcum and goethite together with clay minerals at 1.4 nm, kaolinite and illite were found in the clays (2 microm).

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).

Soil water processes control soil hydrological behavior in the vadose zone at a wide range of scales. At local scale, flux and storage of water in the unsaturated zone is adequately described by the classical nonlinear Richards' equation. Extrapolating the theory to a larger-scale system for modeling field-scale water flows is ordinary practice (scale-invariant equation) but its application set two major and strictly related problems; namely (i) the characterization and parameterization of soil hydraulic properties and (ii) their inherent variability at the field scale. In order to address the first issue, the soils hydraulic properties are typically derived either through expensive laboratory and/or field experiments or with alternative approaches like pedotranfer functions in order to increase cost effectiveness. On the other side the variability of soil hydraulic properties at the field scale can be treated by a feasible approach, considering soils in the field as an ensemble of parallel and statistically independent tubes, assuming only vertical flows. Each stream tube defines local flow properties that are assumed to vary randomly between the different stream tubes. We used the Monte Carlo technique, which treats any uncertain parameter as a random variable that obeys a given probabilistic distribution, for analyzing soil hydraulic properties probabilistic uncertainty (second issue). The goals of this work, placed at the core of the issues (i) and (ii), are the following: o recognize the sensitivity of a Richard-based model to the measured variability of ?(h) and k(?) parameters; o establish the predictive capability and effectiveness of PTFs by using measured data and independent and spatially distributed information (NDVI) as data quality control. The study area is located in the Po plain (Lodi) in Northern Italy and it has an extension of approximately 2000 hectares; most of the area has corn land use. A considerable number (about 100) of topsoil sample sites, throughout the whole study site, were identified for hydropedological analysis. All samples were analyzed for texture, bulk density, organic matter content and other chemical properties, and for about 60 samples water retention curves and saturated hydraulic conductivities were determined and parameterized following the Mualem-van Genuchten functional relationships. Several pedotransfer functions were tested on the 60 measured hydraulic properties; then the PTF HYPRES was applied to derive hydraulic properties of the entire soil database. The data from the PTF showed a good agreement with the measured one and, as expected, a smoothing effect was recognized. Furthermore, a site was also settled within the area, for continuous monitoring of soil water variables for model calibration and validation. The model was applied and the Monte Carlo approach was used to analyze the sensitivity of the applied model to two measured input parameters: the slope of water retention curve (n) and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (k0). The analysis was performed singularly for each parameter and jointly for both. The analysis has shown that the "n" parameter affects the variability of the process simulated to an extent significantly higher than the k0 parameter, although the former is much less variable. Despite only slight differences arise between measurements and estimated data, the sensitivity analysis of the applied model underline the absolute need for a correct assessment of the "n" parameters. In fact, while direct and significant correlations were found between the "n" hydraulic parameter obtained from measured water retention curves and the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) using high resolution remotely sensed data on maize cultivation, this relationship does not occur with estimated water retention curves.

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.

Image analysis of photographs made from 5 cm × 10 cm soil thin sections from a Vertisol profile (0–175 cm depth) in southern Italy demonstrates the existence of two types of pore networks: a network of pores of continuously decreasing porosity and irregularly abundant macropores. These pore networks change in a regular manner from one depth to another. Certain macropores occur in the range of the network of continuously decreasing abundance but their anomalous abundance sets them apart from the other pores. This macropore network varies in porosity in an irregular manner from one depth to another in the profile. The soil profile samples studied can be divided into three zones, self mulching surface, 10–80 cm, that of agricultural activity, and 90–175 cm, below this activity. The continuously varying smaller pore network is of low and rather constant porosity in the upper part of the profile but it has its highest porosity at 95 cm decreasing regularly as a function of depth below this level. Macropore networks decrease in prorsity with depth also but in an irregular manner. The numerical characterisation of soil pore networks gives a much better idea of the type and abundance of pores which should lead to a better understanding of permeability and transport characteristics in soil.

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.

A multilayer approach to the image analysis of soil thin sections is presented. Sixteen images from the same microscope field were digitized from photomicrographs obtained with different light polarizations combined with different colour filters. The light sources were plain transmitted light (PTL), between crossed polars(BXP), circularly polarized light (CPL) and CPL with gypsum plate. ERDAS : a digital imaging processing (DIP) system normally applied to remote sensing was used. This, together with the hardware, allowed the creation of multilayer images on which supervised and unsupervised classification procedures were applied to distinguish and quantify features such as quartz, clay coatings, matrix and pores. A combination of PTL and CPL images gave the best multilayer image. Inaccuracies in the classification procedures were corrected manually to produce a reference image which was compared with the images created by the classifications. The unsupervised classification had many limitations, however the supervised classification was very successful in differentiating the features.

The Land Evaluation (LE) comprise the evaluation procedures to asses the attitudes of the land to a generic or specific use (e.g. biomass production). From local to regional and national scale the approach to the land use planning should requires a deep knowledge of the processes that drive the functioning of the soil-plant-atmosphere system. According to the classical approaches the assessment of attitudes is the result of a qualitative comparison between the land/soil physical properties and the land use requirements. These approaches have a quick and inexpensive applicability; however, they are based on empirical and qualitative models with a basic knowledge structure specifically built for a specific landscape and for the specific object of the evaluation (e.g. crop). The outcome from this situation is the huge difficulties in the spatial extrapolation of the LE results and the rigidity of the system. Modern techniques instead, rely on the application of mechanistic and quantitative simulation modelling that allow a dynamic characterisation of the interrelated physical and chemical processes taking place in the soil landscape. Moreover, the insertion of physical based rules in the LE procedure may make it less difficult in terms of both extending spatially the results and changing the object (e.g. crop species, nitrate dynamics, etc.) of the evaluation. On the other side these modern approaches require high quality and quantity of input data that cause a significant increase in costs. In this scenario nowadays the LE expert is asked to choose the best LE methodology considering costs, complexity of the procedure and benefits in handling a specific land evaluation. In this work we performed a forage maize land suitability study by comparing 9 different methods having increasing complexity and costs. The study area, of about 2000 ha, is located in North Italy in the Lodi plain (Po valley). The range of the 9 employed methods ranged from standard LE approaches to the extensive use of simulation modelling (SWAP and CropSyst), using as data input pre-existing soil information (soil map 1:50000) and also hydraulic properties measured as well estimated by PTF. The comparison between the different methods was based on both cost and predictive ability of each of the methods. The latter was evaluated by comparison to the estimate of forage maize biomass obtained by using locally tested remote sensing measurements. Statistical indexes like correlation, relative variance and ANOVA test were applied. As expected, higher method complexity corresponds to higher quality/quantity of input parameters and as consequence higher costs. Generally, results show that more complex methods gave better results in terms of their predictive ability and those operating on measurements gave better performance than those operating on PTF. Moreover, the best predictive results were obtained abandoning the support of the soil mapping units, incrementing dramatically the number of sampling and analysis and applying the simulation modelling on real benchmark soils rather than averaging more soils observations.

Mudflows are between the major catastrophic types of landslides occurring in Italy especially in terms of victims and damages. An integrated pedological and hydrological analysis has been performed in Calabria, Campania, Toscana and Lombardia regions on the detachment crowns of some of the most important catastrophic mudflows occurred in Italy in the last decades, including the slides of Sarno (1998), Salerno (1910, 1924, 1954), Platì (1951), Versilia (1996) and Albaredo (1987, 2002) sites. A detailed hydro-pedological study performed in the Campania region, using a 2D Richard's based water balance simulation model, addressed the following issues: (i) the importance of hydrological properties of andic soils, namely soils having large quantities of poorly ordered clay minerals; (ii) the interruption of the pedological continuity of the slope and (iii) the relationship with slope aspect. The main results show an increase in soil water storage (more than 30%) in both North facing landscapes and in slope having an interruption in pedo-continuity with respect to some references. Overall the results at national scale revealed an evident association between the investigated catastrophic mudflows and the presence of andic soils, both in the detachment crowns and on the slopes. We believe that these soils because of the unique hydrological properties and high tixotropy induced high vulnerability in landslide triggering and development mechanisms.

For the range of volcanic soils investigated, water retention analysis showed that near-saturation and field capacity water contents are more representative of the whole water retention behavior than the most commonly used “wilting point” water content. The Integral Retention Index, IRI, showed a strong relationship with the different environments; the index also showed a clear relationship with the andic properties (as estimated by Alo+1/2Feo; r=0.84), the soils with the lowest Alo+1/2Feo and also a high content in pumice departing from this linear relationship. This is especially relevant because IRI, has a very important physical meaning with respect to ecosystem fertility.

The effect of heavy metal contamination on biological and biochemical properties of Italian volcanic soils was evaluated in a multidisciplinary study, involving pedoenvironmental, micromorphological, physical, chemical, biological and biochemical analyses. Soils affected by recurring river overflowing, with Cr(III)-contaminated water and sediments, and a non-flooded control soil were analysed for microbial biomass, total and active fungal mycelium, enzyme activities (i.e., FDA hydrolase, dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, urease, arylsulphatase, acid phosphatase) and bacterial diversity (DGGE characterisation). Biological and biochemical data were related with both total and selected fractions of Cr and Cu (the latter deriving from agricultural chemical products) as well as with total and extractable organic C. The growth and activity of soil microbial community were influenced by soil organic C content rather than Cu or Cr contents. In fact, positive correlations between all studied parameters and organic C content were found. On the contrary, negative correlations were observed only between total fungal mycelium, dehydrogenase, arylsulphatase and acid phosphatase activities and only one Cr fraction (the soluble, exchangeable and carbonate bound). However, total Cr content negatively affected the eubacterial diversity but it did not determine changes in soil activity, probably because of the redundancy of functions within species of soil microbial community. On the other hand, expressing biological and biochemical parameters per unit of total organic C, Cu pollution negatively influenced microbial biomass, fungal mycelium and several enzyme activities, confirming soil organic matter is able to mask the negative effects of Cu on microbial community. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Volcanic soils affected by different numbers of polluted river flooding events were investigated. Chromium and Cu were the major soil contaminants. Nickel, Fe, Zn and Mn total content never exceeded the Italian mandatory limits. The distribution of Cr and Cu total contents among studied soils indicated that only Cr contamination was related to overflowing events. In polluted soils, sequential chemical extractions revealed a preferential association of Cr and Cu with organic forms. A progressive Cr insolubilization with ageing was observed. Significant amounts of Cr and Cu were extracted by NH4-oxalate, suggesting metals association with short-range-order aluminosilicates and organo-mineral complexes. Possible methodological drawbacks in the use of the EU-BCR chemical speciation protocol on volcanic soils are discussed. Micromorphology and SEM/WDS analyses revealed Cr and Cu enriched silt and clay coatings in surface and subsurface soil horizons, suggesting a transfer of metal-rich sediments along the soil pore network with water movement. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

Use of sequential images of an impregnated soil block (6×2×2 cm) were used to compare two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) aspects of pores in an Italian Vertisol. Standard image analysis methods are used to represent and measure the properties of the pores represented in the images. It is clear that not all 3D properties can be predicted with the same precision using 2D images. This is largely due to anisotropy of the Vertisol pore structure. However, it was found that many properties such as porosity, pore width distribution can be adequately assessed using five to ten 2D sections in the 3D block. Measurements such as fractal dimension can be determined with fewer 2D images. However, pore connectivity and percolation threshold dimensions cannot be predicted using a small percentage of the soil block volume in 2D images. Connectivity observed in 2D and 3D images is very different in this soil example.

Summary A number of image analysis techniques, largely drawn from remote sensing, have been applied to soil thin sections in an attempt (i) to overcome some of the limitations of previous approaches and (ii) to identify some complex soil features. Using different wavelengths and light polarizations, microscopic images of thin sections obtained from different horizons were digitized. It was then possible to carry out a series of experiments including geometric corrections, creation of multilayer images, principal component transformation, classification procedures, morphological analysis and modelling of bi-dimensional optical anisotropy of the soil matrix. As a special procedure, principal component images were included in the multilayer images, thereby improving the classification on which a morphological analysis was conducted. The reliability of the procedure was tested against point counting and was found to be successful. The overall procedure allowed the combination of brightness and shape classifications. Bi-dimensional matrix optical anisotropy was detected at 256 levels and plotted as a three-dimensional perspective view, thus creating a new way of studying this feature.