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Development of a digital tool for evaluating soil quality in a participatory manner

• Starting date : November 2021
• Research unit: UMR LISAH / TETIS - INRAE
• PhD school : GAIA
• Thesis management : Philippe Lagacherie
• Thesis management  : Léa Tardieu - Evelyne Lutton
• #DigitAg : Labeled PhD

Résumé : In addition to their agronomic and production functions, agricultural soils produce multiple ecosystem services. Mapping indicators of these multiple potentialities is required to support planning decisions, particularly to control the artificialization of soils generated by urban growth. However, the soil quality indicator maps produced still have a number of operational limitations: - Soil classification is carried out by a small panel of experts without local users having 1) been identified and 2) participated in the design and representation of these classifications. This can hinder the acceptability of these classifications and their use in land use or occupation decisions; - The cartographic form of the output is also defined without consultation, particularly on the way in which cartographic uncertainty is communicated, which can lead to misinterpretation and biased decisions; - Users cannot introduce local knowledge to correct the regional estimates of soil properties on which the soil indicator maps are based. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose to develop a participatory approach to soil quality zoning based on the replacement of conventional maps by interactive visualisation tools allowing future local users to be involved in the soil quality assessment mapping process.