This book is an English language revision of a text first published in Italian. The book aims to provide an operational and educational tool for land evaluation for agriculture and forestry based on knowledge of soil. The introduction covers the history, definitions and concepts of soil and land evaluation. This is followed by seven chapters in Part II on Soil and Land Evaluation covering land capability classification, soil protection, irrigation, erosion, hydrology and restoration; and in Part III on Land Suitability and Land Zoning 25 chapters present a wide variety of detailed examples of land suitability for row crops (bread wheat, durum wheat, maize, rice, alfalfa, potato, tobacco, soybean, sugar beet), small-scale niche cultivation (emmer wheat, truffles, ash-tree manna, cactus pear, lentils), and tree cultivation (including common ash, walnut, citrus, olives, stone fruits, apple and pear, kiwi fruit). These chapters provide clearly organized descriptions of suitability assessments focused largely through cultivation techniques and crop requirements for each species. Two final chapters cover land evaluation for Italian conifers and land suitability for grazing.

The focus of the book on Italian soils and crops is clear and limits the utility of the text to be mainly an applied manual for those interested in these crops in areas with soils and climates similar to those in Italy. The text has a limited wider value for other species, regions and soil types, although the clarity of suitability assessment methodologies gives it some potential for student instruction in these procedures.