_applied sciences_  
_Article_  
**Implementing a GIS-Based Digital Atlas of Agricultural Plastics to Reduce Their Environmental Footprint: Part II, an Inductive Approach**  
**[PERSON] 1,*\({}^{\copyright}\)**, [PERSON] 1\({}^{\copyright}\)**, [PERSON] 2\({}^{\copyright}\)**, [PERSON] 2 and [PERSON] 1\({}^{\copyright}\)  
next 20 years [7; 8]. Therefore, it has become imperative to study and understand how this increase in plastics will impact severely compromised ecosystems. Many previous studies were conducted on the impacts of plastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems [9], but little has been investigated so far on terrestrial habitats [10; 11]. Agricultural activities are among the most important sources of plastic in the soil; they are often underestimated as they are difficult to quantify [12; 13]. This is because agricultural productivity and sustainability are substantially influenced by the use of plastic polymers in various forms and structures. Their main benefits are that they are lightweight and cheap and, hence, can be used in very large volumes in agricultural activities [14]. Mulch films, polymer-coated soil additives, seeds, greenhouses, polytunnels, and silage product packaging are made of plastic; they are used in almost all agricultural activities [15]. As per the common agricultural policy [16], one of the most important topics to be addressed is activating the sustainable management of plastics in agriculture, to reduce the negative impacts of the release of micro- and nanoplastics in the soil [17]. The release of plastic residues into farmland and their influences on soil health and long-term crop production are still not clear ([PERSON] et al.). For example, one of the first analyses was by [PERSON] et al. [18] in southeast Germany, where the macro- and microplastic pollution on agricultural fields were quantified with values of around 200 macroplastics (pieces/hectares) and between 0.34 and 0.36 microplastics (particles/kilogram of the dry weight of soil). A more recent case study was carried out in Taiwan [19], where differences in the amounts of microplastics (12-117 items/m\({}^{2}\)) were found between farmlands near the road (more than three times) compared to those more isolated. The problem of plastic pollution in agriculture is linked not only to the large quantities used but also to poor and inefficient management at the farmland level and the level of competent authorities responsible for agricultural plastic waste (APW) [8]. The lack or inefficiency of agricultural plastic waste management and recycling systems in most European countries means that illegal disposal practices often occur [20; 21]. The first step toward proper management of APW and, therefore, reducing their environmental footprint, is to quantify them, i.e., to implement different post-use sustainable management actions. The techniques are different, but surely the most used methodologies are based on a GIS approach [22; 23; 24]. In the present paper, to develop useful methodologies that realize the digital atlas of agricultural plastics, an inductive (i.e., _bottom-up_) approach is proposed based on statistical data and the relevant index of the potential use of plastic material for cultivated crops in a study area. This approach has the same general objective, but it is different from the deductive approach (i.e., _top-down_) presented in the first part of the work already published [25], in which a deductive methodology was implemented by exploiting satellite index images and orthophoto classifications [26]. In this case, the methodology is based on the analysis and processing of statistical data from the agricultural census based on a well-defined administrative scope. Data (in terms of hectares on the different crops examined) were correlated with data on the types and quantities of plastics used for the crops derived from questionnaires proposed to various producers and agricultural associations [27].