Metric:
Proportion of land area with adequate soil quality
Units
Example target
Example methods / guidance / references
What are tiers?
Tier 1
Estimate using own judgement and observations
Methods for assessing various soil condition metrics using on-site visual assessment can be found in North Central Catchment Management Authority’s Soil Health Guide.
Tier 2
Estimate using third-party professional estimates or public data
Tier 3
Model or measure based on site-specific surveys/sampling, remote or in-field sensing, laboratory analysis, etc.
Methods for measuring soil acidity, soil organic carbon, salinity, extractable phosphorus and groundcover can be found in AfN-METHOD-S-02 “Level 3 Soil Assessment for Productive Land (Landcare)“.
Methods for measuring soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, soil pH, ground cover, salt-affected area/saline extent, soil electrical conductivity and bulk density can be found in AfN-METHOD-S-01 “Land Restoration Fund (LRF) Soil Health Monitoring Method”.
Example data sources
Internal records
Third-party data sources
Maps of various spatially modelled Australian soil variables are available at the Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia – Soil and Landscape Grid Viewer.
Maps of various spatially modelled and measured Australian soil variables are available at Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS).
Site-specific measurements or model outputs
Data on various spatially modelled Australian soil variables are available at the Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia – Get the Data.
Data on various measured Australian soil variables (obtained from various state and national data sources) are available at SoilDataFederator.
Data on various measured Australian soil variables are available at the Australian National Soil Information System (ANSIS) Data Portal.
Notes
This measure may be derived from ecosystem asset condition accounts (see Ecosystem assets). The relevant definition of adequate soil quality will depend on the production system, target productivity level and climate, and may have multiple components (e.g. soil pH, salinity, SOC etc.). Relevant soil quality variables may include any of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of soils that enable soils to provide ecosystem services.
Last updated: 11th April 2025