Profiles in the History of the U.S. Soil Survey offers a broad-ranging collection of essays chronicling the development of the U.S. Soil Survey and its influence on the history of soil survey as a scientific discipline that focuses on mapping, analysis, and description of soils. Appraises the influences of key individuals and institutions on the establishment of federal support for and coordination of U.S. soil surveys. Provides an account of life in the field, detailing experience shared by many soil scientists and survey processionals. Reviews the opening of careers in soil survey to women and African-Americans. Relates aspects of the utility of the soil survey to other federal services, to other fields of research, and to land-use planning. Discusses the future of the U.S. Soil Survey and the new directions both the survey and its uses will take. Soil scientists and other soil survey professionals will find this collection valuable both for the new research it provides and for the memories it preserves of life and work in the field and laboratory. Historians will increasingly turn their attention to this crucial earth science as the intriguing connections between soils, the environment, and human history become more apparent. Teachers, students, and agriculturalists will also appreciate this detailed account of the Soil Survey.

The Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook specifies methods and terminology for soil and land surveys. It has been widely used throughout Australia, providing one reference set of definitions for the characterisation of landform, vegetation, land surface, soil and substrate. The book advocates that a comprehensive suite of land and soil attributes be recorded in a uniform manner. This approach is more useful than the allocation of land or soil to preconceived types or classes. The third edition includes revised chapters on location and vegetation as well as some new landform elements. These updates have been guided by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain, a steering committee comprising representatives from key federal, state and territory land resource assessment agencies. Essential reading for all professionals involved in land resource surveys, this book will also be of value to students and educators in soil science, geography, ecology, agriculture, forestry, resource management, planning, landscape architecture and engineering.