A methodological framework to assess the multiple contributions of soils to ecosystem services delivery at regional scale

- Soil based eco-system services are defined based on available and derived soil data and on societal demands.
- Indicators of the soil functions underpinning the ecosystem services are defined.
- Multiple soil functions are jointly assessed and mapped.
- Method is designed for communicating with other relevant disciplines, and in particular with land planners.

Methodologies used for identifying, assessing and mapping ecosystem services are diverse and frequently inconsistent and notwithstanding the examples from available literature evident methodological gaps are still present. This paper presents an indicator based approach to assessing and mapping the multiple contributions of soil to the delivery of ecosystem services, based on soil functions as derived from available soil data for a reference depth of 100 cm. Of operational value is the fact that, within this framework, several functions can be treated and mapped simultaneously, providing an efficient tool to model the heterogeneity of different soil functions, both at local and regional scale. The methodology consists of: (i) definition of soil based eco-system services, based on available and derived soil data and on societal demands; (ii) definition of appropriate indicators for the functions underpinning the services and coding; and (iii) assessment and mapping of soil potential contribution to multiple ecosystem services. In this paper, we used spatial data to characterise and model the spatial heterogeneity of soil functions in the case study area of alluvial plain of Emilia Romagna (Northern Italy). In order to explicitly take into account the spatial variability of soil properties and the related uncertainty, and in order to exploit at best the available information, we: (i) realised a continuous coverage of basic soil properties via geostatistical simulations conditional on available 1:50,000 soil map and land use map, and (ii) derived the necessary soil properties via locally calibrated pedotransfer functions and using other available information, such as land capability map. Results provide new insights about the composition and interrelation of multiple soil functions and potential services in the region and highlight the difference between soils in term of joint functions provision.