World Soil Day: Europe accelerates land-protection efforts as agritech becomes decisive. Diagram Group: “Technology and data are the new frontier of sustainability”.

Jolanda di Savoia, 5 December 2025 Thirty-three percent of the world’s soils are now degraded, while in Europe more than 60% are in critical condition: these are data from FAO and the European Commission that outline an alarming picture, in which World Soil Day on 5 December assumes a crucial role in drawing attention to a resource that takes up to one thousand years to regenerate just one centimetre of fertile soil. In Italy, according to ISPRA, almost two square metres of soil are sealed every second, with a direct impact on hydrogeological safety, agriculture and quality of life in cities.

For Diagram Group, the priority is clear: “Without data there is no healthy soil. And without healthy soils there is no future.” “World Soil Day reminds us that this is not a technical challenge, but a cultural one: we need a new awareness, in agriculture and in cities, of how soil affects the quality of life of each of us,” comments Roberto Mancini, CEO of Diagram Group. “At Diagram we work so that every decision — public or private — can rely on objective, transparent and useful data. Our commitment is to put the best innovation at the service of sustainability, so that soil protection becomes a shared heritage and a strategic choice for the future of the country.”

The new EU Soil Directive. In this context, the European Union has introduced the new Directive 2025/2360/EU, a historic measure that for the first time establishes a common framework for monitoring, evaluating and sustainably managing soil. The goal is to make Member States capable of preventing degradation through shared scientific tools and objective data, an essential step also for climate adaptation.

“The new European directive on soil monitoring confirms what we at Diagram observe every day in the field: without reliable and timely information it is not possible to protect a fragile and strategic resource like soil,” Mancini continues.

The new frontier of soil protection passes through digital maps and satellites. Soil health has become one of the decisive fracture lines for the future of Italian and European agriculture. In just a few years, the loss of fertility, physical-chemical degradation and the acceleration of erosion phenomena have entered the agendas of institutions and agro-food supply chains. Within this scenario lies the approach developed by Diagram Group, a leading agritech company at European level.

The central point is clear: without accurate and updated information on the state of the land, it is not possible to plan effective policies or adopt sustainable agricultural practices. Digital soil mapping therefore represents the missing knowledge infrastructure. Diagram has invested in data and information processing chains, biophysical models and satellite analyses capable of returning a precise picture of the surface layer of Italian soils, deriving fundamental indicators such as water erosion, organic carbon content, texture, pH, electrical conductivity and the availability of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

At the heart of the system is the so-called “bare soil” image, produced by aggregating all Sentinel-2 images since 2017 in which the field has no crops. The reflectance of the visible and infrared bands reveals the physical-chemical properties of the soil. Through machine-learning algorithms, soils are divided into homogeneous classes based on colour and its components, also classified using the Munsell system.

The resulting maps allow administrations to monitor average annual soil loss over a twenty-year horizon and identify the factors driving erosion — from morphology to vegetation cover to agricultural practices. At the same time, they provide agro-food supply chains with an operational tool to guide production toward more suitable areas and to make measurable the CO₂ storage potential of soils, a crucial aspect in sustainability reporting and in procedures linked to European regulations such as the CSRD.

Soil protection, in short, is entering a phase in which the precision of data becomes a prerequisite, not an added value. Digital innovation makes it possible not only to see what escapes the naked eye, but also to make more informed agronomic and political decisions. It is a paradigm shift that transforms land management from a reactive exercise into a predictive strategy, opening a new chapter in Italian agricultural sustainability.

In this new European architecture, agritech technologies assume a strategic role: from satellite observation systems to soil sensors, from digital soil maps to predictive models, constant monitoring becomes the necessary condition to maintain soil fertility and support agronomic decisions. Diagram Group — the first Italian technological hub for digital agro-food management — is today at the centre of this process thanks to an integrated ecosystem of solutions that combine farm management software, satellite analyses, artificial intelligence and advanced sensors.

“Technology today,” stresses the CEO of Diagram, “allows us to measure parameters that until a few years ago were accessible only through sporadic and expensive surveys; now, thanks to sensors, satellite data and our digital maps, we can understand soil conditions in depth and intervene before problems become irreversible.”

The strength of precision agriculture lies precisely in its ability to transform complex data into operational guidance. And on World Soil Day, Diagram emphasises that soil protection is no longer just a good agricultural practice, but a strategic investment for the sustainability of cities, food security and the country’s ability to face the impacts of the climate crisis. Soil maps, digital monitoring systems and decision-support platforms are now essential tools not only for operators but also for institutions responsible for governing the ecological transition.