Land Assessment: The Prerequisite to Sustainable Development

With the new concepts and goals defined under global ecosystem sustainability and the potential contributions of soil ecosystems to the sustainability of nature and natural resources, efforts have been made to redefine the role of the science of evaluation in achieving the goals thereby defined. Introducing the components of a sustainable ecosystem, the present study strives to explore the functions of soil ecosystem and to define the role of land assessment in developing a road map toward environmental sustainability. Although the science of evaluation serves as the foundation for decision and policy making processes, it has not yet been properly and systematically exploited to achieve optimally integrated resource management. Environmental assessment, no matter how it is employed, is still the missing link in decision and policy making processes as part of sustainable resource management. It, indeed, requires due consideration in all such processes as it plays a pivotal role in bridging all environmental, economic, and engineering disciplines. Land evaluation is a disciple that characterizes soil composition in terms of its quality, degradation, flexibility, safety, health, productivity, behavior, and efficiency and, in conjunction with an evaluation of soil ecosystem functions, defines the roles each of the soil characteristics plays in integrated land management.