On soil health and the pivotal role of proximal sensing

Abstract. Soil underpins the functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems. Sustainable soil management is crucial to preventing further degradation of the non-renewable soil resources and achieving sustainability. The soil health concept has gained popularity as a means to this end and has been integrated into the policies of many countries and supranational organisations. We need an accurate definition and scientifically robust assessment framework for effectively measuring, monitoring and managing soil health, a framework that can effectively be communicated to the policy arena and to stakeholders. Linking soil health to the provision of ecosystem services in line with selected UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides an effective link with the policy arena focusing on sustainable development. This is needed because lack of operational procedures to measure soil health leads to policies that ignore soils and focus on management measures. We review the literature on soil health, its conceptualisation, the current criteria for selecting indicators and thresholds, as well as the implementation of different soil health assessment frameworks. Most published studies on soil health focus on agriculture; however, a broader perspective that includes various terrestrial ecosystems is needed. Soil health assessments should not be limited to agricultural contexts. We highlight the significant potential of advanced sensing technologies to improve current soil health evaluations, which often rely on traditional methods that are time-consuming and costly. We propose a soil health assessment framework that prioritises ecological considerations and is free from anthropogenic bias. The proposed approach leverages modern technological advancements, including proximal sensing, remote sensing, machine learning, and sensor data fusion. This combined use of technologies enables objective, quantitative, reliable, rapid, cost-effective, scalable, and integrative soil health assessments.