WORK IN PROGRESS
The Interdisciplinary Research Unit “Sustainable Management of Soil and Landscape” (SMSL) is a research structure established at the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Sassari (UNISS), Italy. It brings together researchers from multiple disciplines — pedology, soil chemistry, soil biology, geomatics, and land management — united by a shared conviction: that soil can only be understood, protected, and restored through genuinely integrated science.
Soil is one of the most complex and most threatened systems on Earth. It sustains food production, regulates water and nutrient cycles, stores carbon, supports biodiversity, and preserves environmental memory accumulated over millennia. Yet it is non-renewable on any human timescale, and its degradation across the Mediterranean and beyond is accelerating. Addressing this challenge requires scientific approaches that match its complexity — crossing disciplinary boundaries, connecting field observation with geospatial analysis, and translating research into tools that policy and practice can actually use.
SMSL was established precisely to make this kind of science possible: institutionalizing an interdisciplinary working group, promoting collaborative research and advanced training, and engaging with national and international networks at the forefront of soil health science and policy. Its work spans soil health monitoring, landscape analysis, sustainable land management, ecosystem services assessment, and the development of soil databases and information systems — always with an eye to the real-world challenges facing Mediterranean environments.
Led by Prof. Claudio Zucca, SMSL operates as an open and collaborative structure, welcoming participation from faculty across the Department of Agricultural Sciences and building formal partnerships with research institutions in Italy and internationally.