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Soil survey for wise land management

DNR staff collect core samples of soil for testing to provide accurate data about the characteristics of soil at various depths.

The Department has a soil inventory program that will provide soil and land resource information for eastern and central NSW. Called the soil landscape mapping program, the collection and interpretation of specific site data and information generated (reports and maps) is ultimately used as a fundamental tool for land use decisions, land management and the prevention and remediation of land degradation.

Layers within a soil can be seen in soil profiles like this Red Chromosol (Solodic Soil) profile from the Cootamundra soil landscape survey.

Each soil landscape map and report involves several years of work. This involves the use of satellite imagery and air photo interpretation; thousands of soil and landscape observations; hundreds of detailed soil descriptions; laboratory analysis for selected profiles; a range of interpretations and classification of data; and the production of a comprehensive report, an accompanying map and a series of derivative maps. The information can be combined and recombined in a number of ways to produce a surprisingly large number of solutions to land management problems.