| Increased awareness of soil conservation and land degradation problems have caused many landowners to re-evaluate their current land use and farming practices. Consequently, the demand for farm conservation plans resulted in an increase in the use of soil survey information. A review of soil survey, soil conservation and farm conservation planning in Alberta was conducted to document and evaluate the adequacy of soils information available in soil survey reports and maps for farm conservation planning. Farm conservation planners were given a questionnaire to evaluate their soil information requirements and level of understanding of soil survey information.;Results of the literature review suggest that soil surveys produced prior to 1945 provide inadequate soils information for on-farm and municipal scale conservation planning. Reports produced after 1945 are adequate for municipal conservation planning, but do not provide the detail necessary for on-farm conservation planning. The results of the questionnaire indicate that, although farm conservation planners have difficulty interpreting certain technical data, they have a clear idea of their data needs and for algorithms necessary for interpreting the data.;Analyses of the results leads to the conclusion that effective use of soil survey information requires a variety of products and delivery methods. These include the production of standardized soil survey reports and maps, increased education and training in soil survey methods, and the use of electronic and interactive computer technology as alternatives to hard copy reports and maps. Further studies must also be conducted to develop quantitative algorithms for some forms of land degradation so that collection of soils data specific to these algorithms can be facilitated. |
