The Development of Soil Science in Lombardy

In Lombardy, interest in the study of soils began to make headway only between the late 1970s and early 1980s. A first “soil map” project aimed at planning and managing the territory with focus on agricultural aspects was launched in the Province of Mantua in 1982. In 1985, the initiative merged into the project “Soil map at a scale of 1:50,000”, which in a short time was transformed to all intents and purposes into a project of regional cartography and later led to the implementation of the Regional Soil Information System (LOSIS), still an integral part of the GIS (Territorial Information System) of the Lombardy Region. After the season of soil surveys, which in the early 2000s had led to the development of the soil information basis at scale 1:50,000, for the regional lowland territory, and scale 1:250,000 for the whole of Lombardy, attention shifted mainly towards the development of application activities, soil monitoring and soil management. Many issues have been addressed in recent years, which enhanced and made more effective the elements of innovation and support for the implementation of policies in the agricultural, environmental, territorial planning and, more recently, climate fields, given by soil knowledge. The protagonists of this path, lasted 40 years now, have been, in particular, the regional “soil office”, born with the project “Soil map at 1:50,000 scale” and which still operates within the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Forests (Ente Regionale per i Servizi all’Agricoltura e alle Foreste—ERSAF), the University Institutes where soil science has had a space and the professionals who have dedicated themselves to pedology. Furthermore, a strong point has been the ability to form and then maintain a network at national level, albeit informal, of people dealing with soil, which contributed to create a shared humus of relationships, knowledge and widespread “soil culture”, making Italy a “unique case” in Europe.