The goal of the study was to find the best soil indicators for assessing soil sustainability in an arid region in Iran. Researchers compared two methods, Sustainability Index (SI) and Cumulative Rating (CR), using soil samples from agriculture fields near Mashhad. They measured nine soil properties and used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify the most important indicators. The study found that only six soil indicators (pH, SOC, AWC, BD, and SAR) were strongly correlated with soil sustainability. The results showed that using PCA to select key indicators was effective in assessing soil quality in arid areas.