Soil moisture governs the surface fluxes of mass and energy and is a major influence on floods and drought. Existing techniques measure soil moisture either at a point or over a large area many kilometers across. To bridge these two scales we used the cosmic-ray rover, an instrument similar to the recently developed COSMOS probe, but bigger and mobile. This paper explores the challenges and opp...

Peatlands are a subset of wetlands that have accumulated significant amounts of soil organic matter. Soils of peatlands are colloquially known as peat, with mucks referring to peats that are decomposed to the point that the original plant remains are altered beyond recognition (Chapter 6, SSSA 2008). Generally, soils with a surface organic layer >40 cm thick have been classified as Histosols in...

Examples from the Murray–Darling basin in Australia are used to illustrate different methods of disaggregation of reconnaissance-scale maps. One approach for disaggregation revolves around the de-convolution of the soil–landscape paradigm elaborated during a soil survey. The descriptions of soil map units and block diagrams in a soil survey report detail soil–landscape relationships or soil top...

A total of 2848 study sites, with about 500 people in each, were randomly sampled for this investigation which covered a total population of 1 477 742. By stool examinations using the Kato-Katz thick-smear and larval-culture techniques, overall prevalences of 47.0%, 18.8%, and 17.2% were obtained for Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm infections, respectively. The number of...

Mechanically stabilized earth walls, MSEW, around Florida were instrumented through their concrete covers to survey corrosion rates of galvanized strip soil reinforcement by polarization measurements. The first broad survey was made 10 years ago as a baseline and a new survey is currently underway to assess long term corrosion rate trends. Initial results of an ongoing survey confirm low rates ...

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of ECRAN and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. Executive summary • Soil degradation, including soil erosion, land desertification, soil salinisation, soil impoverishment and soil pollution, has become more and more serious in...

Soil classification systems organize soil variability into useful groupings that can be identified by field investigation and documented in soil survey, and form the basis for the exchange and extension of soil science research and soil resources management. Fuzzy clustering analysis may be used whenever a composite classification of soil incorporates multiple parameters. In this paper, seventy...