Environmental Quality of Agricultural Soils

Impacts on the environment have occurred in varying forms and intensities on the different media: soil water and air. Soil as an important component of ecosystems with peculiar characteristics of interaction with fauna and flora has been the object of study and protection. Currently several countries use legal criteria for soil protection either through generic guideline values or through case-by-case risk assessment. In Brazil the state of São Paulo pioneered the publication of guidance values for soil and groundwater in 2001 (CETESB 2001) and updated them in 2005 (CETESB 2005).