Basic Information | International Commission on Irrigation & Drainage (ICID)

Soil Health

Soil health or soil quality is the capacity of a specific kind of soil to function, within natural or managed ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and support human health and habitation. Soil Organic Matter and Soil Biology play a major role in soil quality.

Soil has both inherent and dynamic qualities. Inherent soil quality is a soil’s natural ability to function. For example, sandy soil drains faster than clayey soil. Deep soil has more room for roots than soils with bedrock near the surface. These characteristics do not change easily.

Dynamic soil quality is how soil changes depending on how it is managed. Management choices affect the amount of soil organic matter, soil structure, soil depth, and water and nutrient holding capacity. Soils respond differently to management depending on the inherent properties of the soil and the surrounding landscape.

The ultimate purpose of assessing soil quality is to protect and improve long-term agricultural productivity, water quality, and habitats of all organisms, including people.

We use soil characteristics as indicators of soil quality, but in the end, soil quality must be identified by how soil performs its functions.

Healthy soil gives us clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes by performing five essential functions:

Regulating water - Soil helps control where rain, snowmelt, and irrigation water goes. Water and dissolved solutes flow over the land or into and through the soil.
Sustaining plant and animal life - The diversity and productivity of living things depends on soil.
Filtering potential pollutants - The minerals and microbes in soil are responsible for filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing, and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials, including industrial and municipal by-products and atmospheric deposits.
Cycling nutrients - Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients are stored, transformed, and cycled in the soil.
Supporting structures - Buildings need stable soil for support, and archaeological treasures associated with human habitation are protected in soils.