Impact of Agronomic Practices on Topographic Features, Soil Health in Erosion Model Optimization
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2025 | Viewed by 82
Special Issue Editors
Interests: tillage practices; soil topographic features; soil physico-chemical properties; soil structural characteristics; soil erosion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: sediment yields; agricultural activities; soil erosion; soil loss; soil properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Sustainable agriculture is pivotal in addressing global food security and environmental resilience, yet it faces significant challenges from soil degradation and erosion. Agronomic practices—the methods employed in crop and land management—profoundly influence both the physical landscape and the biological vitality of agricultural systems. These practices, ranging from tillage techniques to crop rotation and contour farming, not only determine soil health but also reshape topographic features over time, creating dynamic interactions that affect erosion rates and long-term land productivity.
Topographic features, such as slope gradients and surface roughness, are traditionally viewed as static elements in agricultural planning. However, agronomic activities can induce gradual yet significant alterations, such as terracing effects from contour plowing or gully formation due to unchecked water erosion. Concurrently, soil health—encompassing organic matter content, structure, and microbial activity—is directly impacted by practices like intensive tillage or cover cropping, which either degrade or enhance the soil’s capacity to resist erosion.
Despite advances in erosion modeling, tools like the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) often overlook the bidirectional relationships between management practices, evolving topography, and soil health dynamics. Current models may insufficiently account for how specific practices alter sediment transport pathways or improve soil cohesion, limiting their predictive accuracy. Optimizing these models requires integrating multidisciplinary insights into how agronomic strategies modulate both geomorphic processes and soil properties.
This Special Issue focuses on the assessment of agronomic practices in determining soil health, topographic features in erosion model optimization. Research articles will cover a broad range of agricultural activities from a series of land use types, including bare land, woodland, abandoned land, and field grassland, as well as cutting-edge research, including simulated tillage, 3D laser scanning technology, etc. All types of articles, such as original research, opinions, and reviews, are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Yong Wang
Prof. Dr. Yunqi Zhang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- agricultural activity
- crop productivity
- soil redistribution
- tillage practice
- soil property
- soil topographic features
- landscape positions
- soil erosion
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