The Soil Management Assessment Tool (SoilMAT) is being developed as part of the soils work in the Scottish Government’s RESAS 2016-21 programme.
SoilMAT is a simple summary process-based model is being developed in MS Excel. The model has modules to predict soil texture, carbon storage and water supply; to describe the impact of changes in temperature and rainfall on crop production; and to determine fertiliser use, nutrient limitation, nitrate leaching and greenhouse gas emissions in Scottish soils. Inputs to the model include location, soil type, land use, rainfall and air temperature, Land Capability for Agriculture class, crop type, typical cereal yield, and fertiliser type and use.
The summary model will be made available via Scotland’s soil website (SEWeb platform) in the future. It is expected that it will be of use to policy makers and planners.
The aim of this presentation is to introduce the tool.