The CEN Workshop specifies a methodology for identifying, characterizing, and implementing a single indicator to assess the quality and degradation of agricultural soils and the overall impact of the agriculture processes. The agriculture impacts are assessed through the mechanical, fertilization and irrigation activities associated. Furthermore, soil affection is evaluated accounting with soil erosion and parameters such as nutrients, texture, and organic matter. The developed methodology allows a simple but robust assessment of soil biogeochemical processes and the loss of fertility and degradation.
The resulting CWA proposes to use the exergy methodology to evaluate all the impacts of an agroecosystem, including those occurring in the soil.
Exergy is a physical property based on the second law of thermodynamics and unifies into a single indicator all soil parameters relevant for soil fertility assessment.
The CWA will be an opportunity to further improve soil quality evaluation by introducing a thermodynamic indicator that will contribute to a rigorous assessment of agricultural processes' impact. The determination of a single comparable, reliable, accurate, and globally accepted indicator will be essential in the near future for the evaluation of soil fertility and agricultural processes efficiency and environmental sustainability
The WS secretariat is hold by the Spanish Standardization Body, UNE.
The kick-off meeting will be held virtually on 5 April 2022 from 10:00 to 14:00 CEST. People can register by sending an email to Ms. Rosa Maria Cepas Aguayo (rcepas@une.org).
All interested parties are invited to submit comments on the draft Project Plan through the commenting form above to the proposed Workshop Secretary, Ms. Rosa Maria Cepas Aguayo (rcepas@une.org).
