The integrated Q-cumber multi-modeling approach for total sustainable agriculture exploitation

Sustainability in agriculture cannot be confined as a list of good practices: indeed, as outlined by Aarhus Convention in 1998, it involves not only environmental issues, but also introduces economic and social issues. As a consequence an effective approach has to consider all of such three pillars. In the present paper this is fulfilled through a novel approach based on an interactive platform (namely Q-Cumber) developed by the same authors, integrating interactive maps, crowd-sourcing, and real-time data. The platform allows monitoring of local areas, through an integrated use of environmental data, simulation models and direct participation of citizens on Google Maps. Specifically, a case study based on an agriculture and livestock farm is analyzed. Direct environmental impacts on air, water and soil (from PM10, NOx, COD,...) and indirect impacts are quantified, taking advantage of Dynamic Computational Geographic Information System and allowing definition of corrective actions for improvement of environmental performance. Additionally, it is shown how careful analysis of the surrounding stressors (roads, industries, etc) can help farm management, providing indications for minimization of different pollutants effects on farm production.