Applied Pedology

Pedology, a branch of soil science has been often overlooked by those responsible for taking decisions for developing rational land use plans. One of the reasons may be due to the fact that pedology does not bring out striking and impressive results as is observed by the application of fertilizers, pesticides, new crop varieties and so on. However, the subject is gaining renewed emphasis in view of the emerging issues of unabated soil degradation/soil quality deterioration, rapid industrialization/urbanization, environmental pollution, multi-functional agriculture, alternate land use planning in the face of changing climate and demography which are eco-friendly, socially acceptable and economically viable. It is also worth mentioning that most often the voluminous soil survey data and the thematic maps prepared by various soil survey organizations in the country remain unexploited by promising land users due to poor understanding of technical terms used and lack of interpretation of the same towards optimizing land use. An attempt has therefore been made in the present endeavour to highlight the fundamental concepts and applications of pedology with a view to developing proper understanding of the processes of evaluation of soils, their classification, identification of potentials and constraints, interpretation of data on soil survey and mapping and practical application for soil and water conservation towards alternate land use for optimizing agricultural production. The text is further enriched by incorporation of various recent developments in the field of Geo-informatics (RS, GPS, GIS) contributing immensely to the subject which are elaborately discussed with inclusion of specific case studies under Indian context. Due emphasis has also been given on the topic “Land Use Planning” which indeed is the ultimate goal of soil survey, classification and mapping. It is hoped that the book will certainly meet the growing need of students and researchers of soil science/pedology, environmental science and will also be useful to those interested in study of soil in totality including geographers, agronomist, administrators and land users responsible for taking vital decisions on appropriate and rational use of land resources.