Biophysical, chemical and socio-economic indicators for assessing agricultural sustainability in the Chinese coastal zone

Agricultural sustainability depends to a great extent upon the maintenance of soil health. There is no single measurement that can be made for its quantification although certain soil biophysical and chemical characteristics are found to be key potential indicators of soil health. An agricultural sustainability index (ASI) is proposed to measure agricultural sustainability as a function of biophysical, chemical, economic and social indicators. It was tested on a regional dataset from China. It showed marked changes in sustainability over a 9-year period and between regions within the coastal zone. This index appears promising for assessing agricultural sustainability. It permits the comparison of relative sustainability of different agroecosystems and can be used to compare agricultural sustainability across regions, although care must be taken in the choice of rating scale for the component indicators and further research in this is needed. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.