Non-Agricultural Applications of Soil Surveys

Soils are affected by human activities, such as industrial, municipal and agriculture, that often result in soil degradation and loss. In order to prevent soil degradation and to rehabilitate the potentials of degraded soils, reliable soil data are the most important prerequisites for the design of appropriate land-use systems and soil management practices as well as for a better understanding of the environment. The availability of reliable information on soil morphology and other characteristics obtained through examination and description of the soil in the field is essential, and the use of a common language is of prime importance. These guidelines, based on the latest internationally accepted systems and classifications, provide a complete procedure for soil description and for collecting field data. To help beginners, some explanatory notes are included as well as keys based on simple test and observations.--Publisher's description.

The Encyclopedia of Soil Science provides a comprehensive, alphabetical treatment of basic soil science in a single volume. It constitutes a wide ranging and authorative collection of some 160 academic articles covering the salient aspects of soil physics, chemistry, biology, fertility, technology, genesis, morphology, classification and geomorphology. With increased usage of soil for world food production, building materials, and waste repositories, demand has grown for a better global understanding of soil and its processes. longer articles by leading authorities from around the world are supplemented by some 430 definitions of common terms in soil sciences.

As we enter the last decades of the twentieth century, many persistent and perplexing problems continue to afflict humankind. Thus it is appropriate to address, in a new group of books, two of the monumental issues that haunt people throughout the world. Soils and the Environment by Professor Gerald W. Olson is the first book in this new publish ing program on Environment, Energy, and Society. The purpose of all these books will be to explore the many interrelated facets of these topics and to provide guidance for deal ing with problems and offering ideas for their solutions. Environment and energy are twin problems that occupy what many believe to be opposite sides of a two-headed coin. They are often viewed as being antithetical and incompatible. The various books in this program will try to place in perspective the options that are available to those who design policy and plan and manage societal matters. Typical of books being developed currently are ones on coal resources, environmental geoscience, environmental pollution, land-use planning, nuclear energy, mineral resources, and water resources. However, because soils are at the very heart of civilization and provide the building block for human sustenance, it is fitting to inaugurate this series with Dr. Olson's timely analysis of soils. Unfortu nately, these most vital resources seen. to have low priority in many farming enterprises, urbanization projects, deforestation schemes, and mining and developmental terrain changes.

During its existence the Ecosciences Panel of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was constantly concerned with (i) the communic ation gap between the generators of ecological/environmental infor mation and those who use it and (ii) the narrow interpretation of 'environmental' which too frequently was taken as being synonymous with pollution. Because of this concern, and because the panel recognised that land-use is perhaps the overriding facet of environmental policy it was decided to arrange the Seminar recorded in this volume :- Land and its Uses : Actual and Potential An Environmental Appraisal The development of this Seminar was chaired by Professor F. T. Last who was enthusiastically supported by B. G. Bell (U.K.), Drs S. Bie (Norway), 0. W. Heal (U.K.), R. Herrmann (Federal Republic of Germany), M.C.B.Hotz (formerly of NATO, Belgium, but now in Canada), L. Munn (Canada) and N. Yassoglou (Greece). Together, they decided that the participants should include (i) planners/decision makers and (ii) scientists generating ecological/environmental infor mation, in the hope that they would gain a better understanding of each others problems and attitudes and as a result identify how information can be prepared in a more usable form.