Resilience Planning and Decision-Making: Responding to Today’s Soil Conservation and Future Conditions

Dear Colleagues,

Soil is a fundamental resource for crop production and vital for the health of our ecosystems, making its conservation crucial for global food security and environmental sustainability. However, soil degradation poses a severe worldwide challenge, manifesting in various forms such as salinization, acidification, nutrient imbalance, erosion and heavy metal pollution. As a result, resilience planning and decision-making are required.

In recent years, large-scale projects, such as the Land Use/Cover Area frame Statistical survey (LUCAS) in Europe and the 3rd National Soil Survey in China, were conducted to monitor the current status of soil resources and project their future development to inform better management. A critical line of inquiry involves understanding the resilience planning and decision-making processes of both farmers and governments. Key questions include the following: What factors influence their adoption of conservation practices? How can policies be designed to effectively promote a transition toward sustainable soil management?

This Special Issue will collect high-quality original research articles and comprehensive review papers that address these pressing questions. We seek contributions that focus on innovative monitoring techniques, effective management practices, and robust policy frameworks for soil conservation. Particular emphasis will be placed on studies that explore the pathways and decision-making mechanisms through which farmers and governments are moving towards effective soil conservation, considering both present challenges and future scenarios.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Resilience planning for soil conservation;
• Decision-making of farmers/government on soil conservation;
• Soil management on soil conservation;
• Soil monitoring/mapping on soil degradation and conservation;
• Scenario analysis of different management for soil conservation;
• Climate change on future soil conservation;
• Process-based models applied in soil conservation.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Yang Liu
Dr. Shunhua Yang
Prof. Dr. Krish Jayachandran
Guest Editors

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