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Since presentation of 'on the Origin of Species' to 5mbooks for publishing, (April 7 2026)
this has happened...
Since presentation of 'on the Origin of Species' to 5mbooks for publishing, (April 7 2026)
this has happened...
Indicators of soil health for England
Indicators of soil health for England
Official statistic in development – indicator under development. The project team would welcome feedback on the novel methods used in the development of these statistics. For example, do they measure something readers feel should be measured, and how well do they represent soil health? Do you find anything confusing? Do you have alternative suggestions for how results could be visualised? As these are indicators under development they have not been assessed.
soil health is defined as soils’ contribution to the delivery of ecosystem services (ES). It includes interim (year one of five) baseline data for:
Soils’ influence on reduction of runoff risk for surface water flood prevention.
Soil carbon, and soils’ influence on long-term carbon storage.
Soils’ influence on sustainable arable crop provision.
Soils’ impact on ES delivery consists of two aspects:
How much soils are leading to ES delivery overall (including both the soils’ inherent capabilities and management).
How well we are managing our soils for ES delivery.
Both of these concepts, and how they relate to each other, are presented in these statistics.
The statistics are designed for use as a high-level, national scale assessment of the overall state of soils in rural England (noting exclusions detailed below). This does not cover all user needs, and so will be complementary to indicators under development in other projects that focus on site-based (e.g. assessments for farmers to undertake themselves) or policy-specific (e.g. measuring the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes) indicators". JNCC
Ever wondered what state England’s soils are in? With the Joint Nature Conservation Committee's release of the indicators of soil health for England, we’re a step closer to knowing.
These indicators don’t give us field‑level answers — but they do give us something we’ve never had before: a national baseline linking soil condition directly to environmental risk and national resilience. They highlight how:
🌧️ Soils could play a far bigger role in protecting communities from flooding — and the new indicators show exactly where smarter management can unlock that natural resilience.
🌍 There is huge untapped potential for our soils to store more carbon — a national opportunity to strengthen climate action by restoring the health of the ground beneath us.
🌾 Healthier soils caould boost sustainable food production — reducing inputs, improving resilience and supporting long‑term food security when we invest in the basics.
The indicators are a milestone worth celebrating — and a direction of travel the SSA has championed for years. Congratulations to Defra and all involved for moving the dial on prioritising our soils!
The approach defines soil health according to a modelled assessment of how soil health across rural England contributes to mitigation of flood risk, long-term carbon storage, and sustainable arable crop provision. Each indicator assesses two key parameters: how effectively soils naturally deliver these critical ‘services’, and how our management and use of soils is impacting their ability to do so.
Mitigation of surface water flood risk – how effectively soils help reduce surface water flooding by absorbing, storing and slowing the movement of rainfall. It reflects factors such as soil structure, infiltration capacity and compaction.
Long-term carbon storage – evaluates the amount of carbon held in soils and their capacity to retain it over time. It draws on measured soil carbon stocks and modelled expectations to show whether soils are storing carbon at, above or below their potential. Strong performance supports climate mitigation goals and long-term ecosystem resilience.
Sustainable arable crop provision – estimates the ability of soils to support productive, sustainable arable farming. It considers soil properties such organic matter, structure and nutrient-holding capacity to determine whether soils are delivering expected levels of crop-supporting function. Higher performance reflects soils that can sustain yields without degrading their longterm health.
The underlying data – and scientific approach
The indicators are based on data from several sources, including the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme’s England Ecosystem Survey (EES) which was made publicly available in December 2025.
Using a Bayesian belief network – which combines different evidence sources to estimate the most likely outcome – the indicators combine the NCEA data with expert judgement and model outputs to work out the most likely overall condition of soils.
It enables the NCEA evidence to be converted into probability based summaries rather than fixed scores, which is why the visual dashboards show trends and averages in soil function – rather than precise, field-level results.
As such, the indicators focus on what is realistically deliverable – making them credible, usable and relevant – and provide the clarity and consistency needed to create a joined up conversation about the policy and economic investment our soils require.
A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) is a probabilistic graphical model that represents variables and their conditional dependencies via a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). It maps complex relationships using nodes (factors) and links (causal relationships), allowing for reasoning under uncertainty and updating probabilities as new evidence becomes available
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