Introducing Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) Method

The country environmental and economic sustainability can be greatly influenced by soil quality. There are several ways proposed to assess the soil quality in order to apply appropriate management plans. However, the easy-to-use indicator-based methods have been less considered. To this end, the Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) method was developed to facilitate land managers to monitor soil quality in a simple and semi-quantitative way. The VSA is based on the simple observation of some key visual indicators representing soil quality and is a quick, a cost effective and an efficacious tool to assess and monitor the soil quality. The VSA is based on the soil physical and biological criteria and associated with an easy-to-use scorecard. The soil indicators are also supported by plant performance indicators linked to soil conditions. The visual indicators are underpinned by sound pedological principles and extensive researches, and are linked to economic performance and sustainability.