Soil health monitoring through iterative analysis of soil’s past, present, and future

Soil health monitoring through iterative analysis of soil’s past, present, and future Tom Hengl, Director of the OpenGeoHub foundation, discusses the importance of soil health monitoring and how the AI4SoilHealth project is supporting this endeavor. Soils are the basis of human civilization. Together with biodiversity, climate, and water resources, it is our primary natural capital that we have inherited and should never underestimate or mistreat: 1cm of soil can take between 200–400 years to form under natural conditions, hence any soil degradation (e.g., soil erosion, landslides, salinization, flooding, sealing, loss of biodiversity and similar) means we are throwing away the future of our children and their children. Soil health monitoring is thus a fundamental activity and an important requirement for reaching the European Green Deal and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.