Dairy Farm Sustainability Indicators from a Multi-Dimensional Pilot Study

A pilot study applied an integrated multi-dimensional framework to assess sustainability on a set of case-study dairy farms. The framework evaluated agroecosystem services, plant biodiversity, socio-economic aspects, and environmental impacts via Life Cycle Assessment. Authored by Nicola Maria Palladini and last updated on 2026-05-19, the 24.7 KB document presents the methodological approach and findings.

Use Cases

• Comparing environmental and socio-economic performance across farms based on the described multi-dimensional indicators.
• Modeling relationships between land use types (grassland, arable land) and agroecosystem service provision.
• Analyzing trade-offs between dairy efficiency, economic performance, and landscape value as suggested by the study results.
• Developing decision-support tools for farm management that integrate biodiversity, social capital, and water management metrics.

Strengths

• Applies a multi-dimensional framework integrating environmental, social, and economic factors for sustainability assessment.
• Uses established methodologies including the Agroecosystem Service Capacity Index, Shannon diversity index, Public Goods Tool, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse and adaptation.

Limitations

• Based on a limited number of case-study farms, as stated in the description, which may limit generalizability.
• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, requiring manual inspection after download to understand data structure.
• The primary data file is a 24.7 KB DOCX document, suggesting the dataset is very small and likely contains summary findings rather than extensive raw data.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Nicola Maria Palladini.

Collection Method

Pilot study applying an integrated methodological framework to case-study dairy farms.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-19 11:15:51; freshness should be verified.