Talk:Soil survey

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[edit] Disputed

It is a branch of applied physical geography, and draws heavily from geomorphology, analysis of vegetation and land-use patterns, and theories of soil formation.

I qualified to be a soil mapper (USA) based on my degree in soil science. Same with all soil mappers I know active in Canada, Africa, Asia. Maybe there is a place out there that is different, but AFAIK no professional soil mapper is qualified solely by a university degree in geography.

Note: Soil science is an independent science (see IUSS), not a branch of geography (or geology, or agricultural sciences, or biology ...)

More accurate would be to replace the above with: It is a branch of soil science, and draws heavily from geomorphology, physical geography, and analysis of vegetation and land-use patterns.

Paleorthid 20:56, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I would have to agree with Paleorthid on this. Perhaps a change in this verbage would be warranted.

Dylan B 8:51, 20 May 2006 (PST)

[edit] Article merge

Seeing how a soil survey is the precursor to a soil map, it seems that this article should be the primary article, and soil mapping derives from the use of this data. SCmurky 04:30, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Agree, although from a different perspective, and with some unresolved concerns. Published soil survey is the term for the final document and the individual soil map sheets are components of the soil survey. Thus: field soil survey > soil map > published soil survey. Either way, it seems that soil map would be a better subheading under soil survey than the reverse. Soil survey is also the more commonly recognized term, with 1,630,000 google hits on the phrase vs 363,000 for soil map as a phrase. Unresolved concerns:

• The soil survey article is far too USA centric and needs to be restructured prior to merge.
• Digital soil mapping, also proposed for merge (I basically agree), fits well as a heading under a soil map article, but seems like a poor fit under soil survey. I believe the way to resolve this is to instead merge digital soil mapping content with pedometrics, but also address it as a subheading in the soil survey article. -- Paleorthid 20:00, 1 November 2006 (UTC)