INCORPORATING ANTHROPOGENIC PROCESSES IN SOIL CLASSIFICATION

Authors: Bryant, Ray; GALBRAITH, JOHN - VA. POLYTECH. INST. AND S

Submitted to: Soil Classification
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/8/2002
Publication Date: 1/15/2003
Citation: BRYANT, R.B., GALBRAITH, J.M. INCORPORATING ANTHROPOGENIC PROCESSES IN SOIL CLASSIFICATION. SOIL CLASSIFICATION. 2003. p. 57-65.

Interpretive Summary: Some classification schemes, including Soil Taxonomy, are ineffective in distinguishing soils that are strongly influenced by human activities, and technology transfer in regard to the best use and management of these soils is thereby hindered. This chapter reviews means of incorporating rules for classifying human influenced soils in various soil classification systems in the context of rules and principles inherent in Soil Taxonomy that conflict with this objective. We propose that previously unused observations such as landforms could be used as criteria for classification; relational observations and data (to include historical records) could be used as criteria for classification; and the knowledge of process of formation could be allowed for use in a single order. Although these approaches do not present a complete solution to the problem, they do provide a means of separating soils in which human influence is the primary process of formation, thereby enabling better groupings of these soils with respect to their response to use and management.

Technical Abstract: This chapter considers the need for incorporating anthropogenic processes in soil classification systems, describes fundamental approaches to soil classification and their underlying concepts that affect the incorporation of anthropogenic processes, and proposes possible approaches to incorporating anthropogenic processes in Soil Taxonomy and like systems. Soil classification schemes serve to facilitate communications about soils by organizing the tremendous number of individual soils into groups of soils that have more similarity and less differentiation within the group than in comparison with other soils or groups of soils. A problem facing Soil Taxonomy is that soils that may contain garbage, coal ash, or construction debris are grouped with Entisols or Inceptisols, and this results in a loss of credibility in the system. Additionally, wide ranges of properties within classes that include anthropogenic soils result in large numbers of series that are unwieldy when attempting to correlate series and interpret map units. There are major problems with incorporating anthropogenic processes in systems such as Soil Taxonomy that use morphology-based criteria because not all anthropogenic soils contain morphological evidence of anthropogenic process. Three approaches to incorporating anthropogenic processes are proposed for use singularly or in combination to minimize impacts on Soil Taxonomy and like systems that rely on morphological criteria for defining classes. Previously unused observations such as landforms could be used as criteria for classification; relational observations and data (to include historical records) could be used as criteria for classification; and the knowledge of process of formation could be allowed for use in a single order. These approaches do not present a complete solution to the problem, but do provide a means of separating soils in which anthropogenic processes are the primary process of formation.