Enjavinezhad Sayyed Mahmoud, Naghibi Seyed Javad, Shirazi Morteza Poozesh, Baghernejad Majid, Fernández-Raga María, Rodrigo-Comino Jesús
Department of Soil Sciences, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
Head of Research & Extension Office, Landscape & Green Spaces Organization of Shiraz Municipality, Shiraz, 45366-78, Iran.
PLoS One. 2025 May 9;20(5):e0321312. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321312. eCollection 2025.
Evaluation of soil quality in urban and peri-urban areas using comparable and reproducible indexes is a necessary step to assess the soil management status and its potential for different uses. The application of quantitative indexes guarantees neutrality and reliability of results, allowing comparisons between areas with similar environmental soil conditions. However, there is no consensus on the application of specific indexes. Therefore, in this research, three indexes (Integrated, Weighted Integrated, and Nemoro´s quality indexes) and two approaches (linear and non-linear methods) were compared to select the most relevant soil properties for evaluating soil quality for different land uses (e.g., agriculture, gardening, parking, rangelands, or bare areas). To this end, an experimental area was selected with a total dataset of 25 physicochemical and biological properties in the Shiraz urban watershed (southern Iran). Nine soil properties were selected using the principal component analysis method as the most informative factors, forming the minimum dataset. The results showed that gardens and bare land had the highest (SQI = 0.34-0.55 across different approaches) and lowest soil quality index (SQI = 0.25-0.44 across different approaches), respectively. The non-linear index calculation approach had better efficiency than the linear one. According to the coefficients of determination (R2 = 0.81-0.89), these key soil variables were suggested as a solution to reduce both the cost and time required for projects carried out by experts and watershed decision-makers to assess soil quality in urban and peri-urban areas.
使用可比且可重复的指标评估城市和城郊地区的土壤质量，是评估土壤管理状况及其不同用途潜力的必要步骤。定量指标的应用保证了结果的中立性和可靠性，使得具有相似环境土壤条件的区域之间能够进行比较。然而，在具体指标的应用上尚未达成共识。因此，在本研究中，比较了三种指标（综合指标、加权综合指标和内梅罗质量指标）和两种方法（线性和非线性方法），以选择评估不同土地用途（如农业、园艺、停车场、牧场或裸地）土壤质量时最相关的土壤属性。为此，在设拉子城市流域（伊朗南部）选择了一个试验区，该试验区有包含25种物理化学和生物学属性的总数据集。使用主成分分析方法选择了9种土壤属性作为信息最丰富的因素，形成了最小数据集。结果表明，花园和裸地的土壤质量指数分别最高（不同方法下的土壤质量指数为0.34 - 0.55）和最低（不同方法下的土壤质量指数为0.25 - 0.44）。非线性指数计算方法比线性方法具有更高的效率。根据决定系数（R² = 0.81 - 0.89），建议将这些关键土壤变量作为一种解决方案，以减少专家和流域决策者在评估城市和城郊地区土壤质量时开展项目所需的成本和时间。
