Data Reliability and Risk Assessment in Soil Interpretations

As we move into the information age, we are now faced with not only an overwhelming amount of information, but also information of diverse quality. There is need to examine the source of information for its validity and applicability to specific situations. Much soil information has been recorded and stored in soil survey reports and databases. As references to soil survey information are increasing in policy, regulatory, and societal decision-making processes, the reliability of the...
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As we move into the information age, we are now faced with not only an overwhelming amount of information, but also information of diverse quality. There is need to examine the source of information for its validity and applicability to specific situations. Much soil information has been recorded and stored in soil survey reports and databases. As references to soil survey information are increasing in policy, regulatory, and societal decision-making processes, the reliability of the information or data in the soil survey reports are increasingly being scrutinized. Much of the earlier information gathered for soil classification purposes was descriptive and qualitative. Depending on the level of detail, some of the databases also included impurities; however, today, more quantitative soil survey information is needed by decision makers for many land-use purposes, ranging from crop productivity ratings to soil permeability classification in relation to siting of specific landscapes to meet waste disposal needs. With the broadening use of soils information also comes attention to the reliability and applicability of the information. The collection of papers in this publication represents assessments of the state-of-the-art status of various soil databases and analyses of the risks associated with using the available data, employing a number of risk assessment techniques.