Assessment of the cropping and farming system sustainability through simulation

The research was aimed in the development and implementation of tools able to assess the cropping and farming sustainability, considering the variability typical of the agronomic systems (climatic, economic, political, etc). These DSS tools will be useful for the planning and the optimization of the production process. In detail, the research was focused, at first instance, in the identification of the best method and instruments for the implementation of the sustainable assessment tool. The idea was to integrate LCA with biophysical modelling; in this way, it is possible to correctly consider the environmental, energetic and economic factors with crop production, bearing in mind also the climate variability. It was important to identify also the correct scale of model representation (crop, farm and territory).