Assessment and modelling of spatial variability of the soil factors potentially affecting groundwater nitrate contamination in two agricultural areas of Molise Region (Southern Italy)

In this study spatial variability was used to analyze soil factors influencing the occurrence of high nitrate concentrations in agricultural soils in the Molise region of Southern Italy. The proposed methodology applied to two agricultural areas combines measurements of soil nitrate concentrations carried out by a monitoring network of 164 top-soils. A multivariate approach based on multivariate geostatistics and GIS was used to model spatial variability of the soil variables. The maps of each individual soil variable and regionalised factor show the areas of the landscape that might cause nitrate loss from agriculture soils. The results can be used to support sustainable land use planning in order to mitigate soil nitrate leaching.