Gabriel Pimenta Barbosa de Sousa, José Alexandre Melo Demattê, Sabine Chabrillat, Robert Milewski, Raúl Roberto Poppiel, Merilyn Taynara Accorsi Amorim, Bruno dos Anjos Bartsch, Jorge Tadeu Fim Rosas, Maurício Roberto Cherubin, Yuxin Ma, Roney Berti de Oliveira, Marcos Rafael Nanni, Renan Falcioni
Soil Health (SH) is a key concept in discussions on sustainable land use, with implications that extend beyond agriculture. To address the need for integrated assessments, this study developed a Sustainable Agricultural Development Index (SADI) by combining the Soil Health Index (SHI) with socioeconomic and management indicators. The analysis was conducted across Germany using 3300 soil analysis sites and environmental covariates, including climate, topography, vegetation indices, and bare soil reflectance. From this foundation, SADI was designed to evaluate agricultural sustainability across German states based on three dimensions: Management (Bare Soil Frequency), Environment (SHI Maps), and Economy (Profit per Hectare). Results revealed that SHI correlated significantly with land surface temperature (R = −0.47), bare soil frequency (R = −0.40), and vegetation indices (R = 0.43). Soil organic carbon also played a key role in explaining degradation patterns. While economically stronger states tended to achieve higher SH scores, environmentally sound and well-managed regions also performed well despite lower economic returns. These findings emphasize that sustainable agriculture depends on balancing economic growth, environmental integrity, and management efficiency. The SADI provides a comprehensive framework for policymakers and land managers to evaluate and guide sustainable agricultural development.