Soil compaction is a widespread yet insufficiently monitored form of agricultural land degradation, affecting approximately 25% of global soils and nearly 33% of European subsoils, with consequential reductions in soil physical functionality, crop performance, and long-term sustainability; however, approaches for national-scale compaction risk mapping remain limited. A geospatial decision support framework was developed to quantify and map susceptibility to compaction risk across Italy by integrating Earth observation products with multi-criteria decision analysis within a GIS-based Analytic Hierarchy Process. The model combined four indicators: (i) Soil Moisture Index derived from Sentinel 1 C band SAR time series (2018 to 2024), (ii) the Sentinel 2 Normalized Difference Tillage Index, (iii) clay fraction from SoilGrids 2.0, and (iv) an Intensity of Agricultural Practice Index derived from national census statistics. The approach was applied to 74,156 km² of bare soil surfaces across all 20 regions to generate 100 m seasonal and multi-year mean risk maps. Extreme risk (high plus very high) exhibited a bimodal seasonal behavior, occupying 53.6% in winter and 55.5% in autumn, while declining to 24.8% in spring and 26.5% in summer; Southern Italy showed the largest seasonal amplitude (40.7%), and Friuli Venezia Giulia persisted as a hotspot exceeding 50% in all seasons. Comparison with the independent bulk density observations yielded 31.24% accuracy, largely constrained by the temporal mismatch between dynamic processes and static reference data, which represents a constraint of this research. The framework provides an initial screening tool for mapping susceptibility to soil compaction aligned with the EU Soil Strategy 2023 to 2030, supporting targeted interventions by prioritizing spring (March to May) as a low-risk remediation window; however, local conditions must be checked because cultivated crop types are highly diverse, and cropping cycles vary significantly from one species to another.

Repeated machinery traffic can compromise vineyard soil physical quality, and older vineyards are characterised by longer-time machinery traffic. However, the relationship between vineyard age and soil compaction depends on management and local soil conditions. This study investigated age-associated compaction patterns under contrasting soil management. Moreover, we assessed whether traffic-induced topsoil compaction persisted across textures. Penetration resistance, volumetric water content (VWC), bulk density (ρb), soil organic matter (SOM), and plateau slope of the penetration profile were measured in four farms. First, three coeval vineyard blocks were analysed to quantify within-farm variability. Second, vineyards of different ages under different soil management were compared to assess age-associated patterns. Finally, a complementary experiment examined texture-related persistence of compaction using matched wheel-track and inter-row-centre observations. The coeval blocks differed in penetration-profile characteristics but VWC, ρb, SOM, and plateau slope were comparable. Under regular decompaction, the oldest vineyard had higher VWC and SOM and lower ρb. No consistent age-associated gradient was observed without decompaction. In the wheel track, mean cone index (CI) over the 0–45 cm layer was lower in the farm that regularly applied decompaction than in the one that did not. In clay soil, mean CI over 10 ± 2.5 cm was 80.5% higher in wheel tracks than at inter-row centres. The paired, block-aware texture analysis did not confirm a difference in the traffic effect between clay and clay-loam soils, while the clay traffic contrast remained significant after accounting for paired changes in VWC and ρb. These findings provide an initial indication that age-associated soil physical patterns may differ under contrasting decompaction management, although traffic imprints persisted in wheel tracks.