About the Project:
Project Aim
The SOILAssist project, organized as multidisciplinary, practice and basic principal orientated consortium, focus primarily on the prevention of negative changes in soil structure and functionality by agricultural machineries and the optimization of soil structure and functionality by optimizing field traffic, machinery specifications, management practices and application techniques.
Motivation
In the last years and decades the sizes and total weights of agricultural machinery increased more and more. This was primarily for economic and process-efficiency reasons. High specialized machinery requires high operating grades. In adverse conditions, considerable negative changes in soil structure and in multiple soil functions occur. Basically soil functions are affected negatively by intensive agricultural field traffic. Management based negative changes in soil functions still have negative effects on economic and ecological efforts and benefits. For using soils as a sustainable resource for bio-economic purposes (BonaRes), agricultural land use should put a focus on sustainable protection and improvement of soil functions, while keeping the economic conditions in mind. The SOILAssist consortium will put a holistic focus on this area of conflict.
Expected Results
To hit this targets, an ‘on the fly’- assistance system for farmers and agricultural contractors will be developed, applied and implemented to optimize the soil conserving traffic on agricultural land and to prevent negative changes in soil functions by optimizing machinery configuration, machinery routes on the field etc. and the overall management.
Additionally, recommendations and recommended actions for farmers, agricultural contractors, agricultural extensionists and political consultancy and an advisory system will be established, to support decision making of farmers for a foresighted planning of soil conserving agricultural management strategies. Moreover, the socio-economic consequences of different management options will be identified and assessed.
People and Partners
Project Leaders
Partner Organizations
Contacts
News
- New web application "verfügbare Feldarbeitstage - Mähdrusch (available field days – combine harvesting)"
- BonaRes/Rhizo4Bio Status Seminar on 14/15 March 2022
- Wheel Load and Wheel Pass Frequency as Indicators for Soil Compaction Risk: A Four-Year Analysis of Traffic Intensity at Field Scale
- A model for automated spatial analyses of wheel load, soil stress and wheel pass frequency at field scale
- Comparing soil physical properties from continuous conventional tillage with long-term reduced tillage affected by one-time inversion
Publications
- Modeling of Field Traffic Intensity and Soil Compaction Risks in Agricultural Landscapes
- Are compacted tramlines underestimated features in soil erosion modeling? A catchment‐scale analysis using a process‐based soil erosion model
- Perception of the Relevance of Soil Compaction and Application of Measures to Prevent It among German Farmers
- Overview of a route-planning tool for capacitated field processes in arable farming
- Soil Penetration Resistance after One-Time Inversion Tillage: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis at the Field Scale