FROM THE LAND USE EVALUATION TO A QUANTITATIVE INDICATOR OF SUSTAINABILITY.

Evaluation of agricultural land for planning purposes has been done traditionally on the basis of its use capability through the application of methodologies based on soil survey and interpretative soil classification. It is now becoming important to evaluate agricultural land also with respect to their environmental performance. In this paper we present a methodology for evaluating the agricultural land use, rather than land capability, based on interpretative soil classification, from which an indicator of sustainability is derived. The evaluation methodology was applied in different sites in Germany and Brazil, and showed good applicability under different site characteristics. The results also confirm the main assumptions adopted by the methodology as well as indicate its potential use in agricultural landscape planning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]