Introduction to the course

Geopedology (a term that consists of ‘geo’ [geology, geomorphology], and ‘pedology’ [soil science]) is used to connote application of geomorphology (in its broad sense) in soil science. The intention in this course is to briefly introduce the geopedologic approach to soil survey. The output of the survey is a geopedologic map, which is a soil (system) map; a holistic presentation of soils distribution.

"Man is dependent on soils-and to a certain extent good soils are dependent upon man and the use he makes of them." The major function of soils is to provide life on the earth. It is said that the soil is to the earth as the peel is to the orange. This is certainly true, but not without having mentioned the following functions of it:

• Soil provides a physical matrix, chemical environment, and biological setting for water, nutrient, air, and heat exchange for living organisms.
• Soil controls the distribution of rainfall or irrigation water to runoff, infiltration, storage, or deep drainage. Its regulation of water flow affects the movement of soluble materials, such as nitrate, nitrogen or pesticides.
• Soil regulates biological activity and molecular exchanges among solid, liquid, and gaseous phases. This affects nutrient cycling, plant growth, and decomposition of organic materials.
• Soil acts as a filter to protect the quality of water, air, and other resources.
• Soil provides mechanical support for living organisms and their structures.
• Soil is the history book of the landscape.

History remembers examples of soil mismanagements which have led to land degradation to the degree of the downfall of civilizations. Obviously, such an important object (the soils) deserves ample attention.

The main objective of this course is to help the students in environmental studies to properly take the role of the soil (as a system) into account. It is important to know that a soil property, such as soil texture, is not ‘a soil’. Or to understand that ‘soil property mapping’ is not ‘soil mapping’ and that none of the two is synonym of ‘soil survey’. Considering that ‘'soil science'' is not taught these days, many students, without any background in soils feel the shortcoming. Such an introductory course is certainly not meant to train soil surveyors, but to help those who wish to do studies in land degradation (erosion, compaction and salinization), in mass wasting related topics and land evaluation, and have never had any training in soil survey.

About this course

This course was developed by International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Department of Earth Systems Analysis (ESA) and E-learning Support Unit.

The main contributors to this course are:

• Author (content): Dr.
• Instructional Designer: M.Sc.
• Video:
• 
  

For more information, please contact .