Soil classification in a mining area

Τίτλος

Soil classification in a mining area

Θέμα

Soils--Classification

Mines and mineral resources

Δημιουργός

Papageorgidou, Christos

Πηγή

Higher Technical Institute

Το πλήρες κείμενο είναι διαθέσιμο από το Υπουργείο Ενέργειας, Εμπορίου Βιομηχανίας και Τουρισμού.

Εκδότης

Library of Cyprus University of Technology

Ημερομηνία

2005

Δικαιώματα

Απαγορεύεται η δημοσίευση ή αναπαραγωγή, ηλεκτρονική ή άλλη χωρίς τη γραπτή συγκατάθεση του δημιουργού και κάτοχου των πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων.

Μορφή

pdf

Γλώσσα

en

Τύπος

text

Αναγνωριστικό

CED0405

Σύνοψη

Definition of soil and categorization
Soil is generally defined as the natural body that covers the earth's surface and is made up
of mineral and organic materials (Soil Survey Staff. 1992, Soil Survey Staff, 1960x). The
most important property for agricultural land evaluation is its capacity to support
vegetation. In this sense soil could be defined as the part ofthe earth's surface that has the
potential to host and influence plant roots. Soil per se is a variable continuity in space and
time. To have an entity that can be handled, described, and dealt with, the term 'pedon'
was introduced (Simonson & Gardner, 1960) as a locally existing set of properties that is
more or less constant over some decameters. It is usually this set that is referred to as the
'soil'. It is described, at a given point as a vertical arrangement of horizons, artificially
introduced horizontal layers which are assumed to have distinct characteristics. The
horizon itself is not a homogeneous body, it can be characterized by repetitive patterns of
inhomogeneities such as concretions, mottles and clay lenses. The common use of the
term horizon implies the existence of such a distinct sequence of property arrangements
and thus a statistic homogeneity over a certain distance. The delineation and description
of horizons is the base for most common classification systems, e.g. FAO (1988), AG
Boden (1994), Soil Survey Staff (1992). The horizon is commonly regarded as a
homogeneous vertical partition of soil (lones, 1959) formed by pedogenetic processes.
Soil description is in consequence restricted to characterizing soil as a one-dimensional
discretized object with a set of determined parameters and represented by a matrix. The
measured and described parameters give the columns of the matrix, the horizons its rows.
Categorization is per se a tool to structure the observations of objects (Baize. 1986). It
brings a grammar into the exchange of knowledge that was absent in the preclassification
era (Wilde, 1953). It is further used for data reduction. It is much more efficient to speak
of an object as belonging to a certain category than to describe all its features in detail.
Moreover, categorization is widely used for the extrapolation of properties. It is
commonly assumed that properties observed for a certain number of objects are also
present in other bodies of the same category.
Categorization is used in two distinct ways: spatial and local (Jalnagne, 1993). Spatial
categorization is what is used in mapping, where a point in space is said to belong to a
certain entity. Local categorization is the realm of classification where a pe don is
classified as belonging to a certain soil class.