Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources

Second Edition

Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks Series 2

		NJ McKenzie   CSIRO Land and Water MJ Grundy   CSIRO Land and Water R Webster   Rothamsted Research AJ Ringrose-Voase   CSIRO Land and Water Colour illustrations 576 pages, 248 x 170 mm Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING 2008 View large cover

    Hardback - ISBN: 9780643090910 - AU $140.00

Description  | Contents  | Readership  | Reviews  | Related Titles

Description
Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources promotes the development and implementation of consistent methods and standards for conducting soil and land resource surveys in Australia. These surveys are primarily field operations that aim to identify, describe, map and evaluate the various kinds of soil or land resources in specific areas.

The advent of geographic information systems, global positioning systems, airborne gamma radiometric remote sensing, digital terrain analysis, simulation modelling, efficient statistical analysis and internet-based delivery of information has dramatically changed the scene in the past two decades. As successor to the Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook: Guidelines for Conducting Surveys, this authoritative guide incorporates these new methods and techniques for supporting natural resource management.

Soil and land resource surveyors, engineering and environmental consultants, commissioners of surveys and funding agencies will benefit from the practical information provided on how best to use the new technologies that have been developed, as will professionals in the spatial sciences such as geomorphology, ecology and hydrology.

Contents
Part 1: Introduction

Rationale

Approaches to land resource survey

Scale
Part 2: Landscape context and remote sensing

Geology, geomorphology and regolith

Soil and landscape processes

Digital terrain analysis

Climate and hydrology

Vegetation

Land-use mapping

Remote sensing with air photography

Spectral reflectance imagery (imaging spectroscopy)

Temporal analysis of remote sensing imagery

Gamma-ray spectrometry
Part 3: Survey mechanics

Survey specification and planning

Survey resources

Field operations

Measuring soil

Qualitative survey

Classifying soil and land
Part 4: Digital soil mapping and pedometrics

Sampling using statistical methods

Statistical analysis

Predicting soil properties using pedotransfer functions and environmental correlation

Geostatistics

Analysing uncertainty

Information management

Synthesis studies: making the most of existing data
Part 5: Land evaluation

Conventional land evaluation

Quantitative land evaluation

Intensive survey for agriculture

Monitoring soil and land condition

Legal and planning framework

Communication

Reviews
"This is a well presented book that should be of value to all organisations and researchers involved in soil and land resource survey, and to those who need to analyse and use the resulting survey data. The emphasis throughout on Australian examples and practice should not deter readers elsewhere from using the book. It covers all aspects of survey and the potential use that such data can be put to."
M A Oliver, Precision Agriculture, April 2009

"This book provides a solid introduction to, and at times an excellent detailed review of, Australian soil and land resource surveying techniques… this 2nd edition provides a modern perspective."
Jason Reynolds, Charles Sturt University, Journal of Spatial Science, December 2008

Readership

• Soil surveyors, ecological surveyors and land resource surveyors
  
• Engineering and environmental impact consultancies
  
• Commissioners of surveys, funding agencies, and those needing guidance on project specifications and expected outcomes from surveys
  
• Allied professionals in the spatial sciences, especially geomorphology, ecology, hydrology and landscape scientists.

Related Titles

Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbooks Series