Monitoring soil for sustainable development and land degradation neutrality

The adoption of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) listed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations urged the scientific community to generate information for planning and monitoring socioeconomic development and the underlying environmental compartments. SDGs 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, and 15 have targets which commend direct consideration of soil resources. There are five groups of SDGs and assigned SDG indicators where soil plays a central role. Frameworks of soil-related sustainable development goals and related indicators which can be monitored in current monitoring schemes are proposed.
 
The United Nations’ adoption of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, urged the scientific community to generate sound information with the aim of supporting planning and monitoring of socioeconomic development interlinking with environmental sustainability dimensions (UN 2015). SDGs 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 14, and 15 refer to targets which commend direct consideration of soil resources. For instance, food security (SDGs 2 and 6), food safety (SDG 3), land-based nutrient pollution of the seas (SDG 14), urban development (SDG 11), and sustainability of terrestrial ecosystem services (SDG 15) are all depending on the provision of ecosystem services where soil properties and functions play a key role to deliver these. In particular, SDG target 15.3 on land degradation neutrality mentions, by 2030 to combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world. In addition, soils play an important role in mitigating and adapting to climate change (SDG 13). Further, SDGs 7 and 12 will indirectly rely on the availability of healthy soil resources. Regarding the remaining SDGs, linkages can be found to the sustainable management of soils to some extent (Keesstra et al. 2016).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-017-6415-3