Soilscape Speaks Out; an Account of the Past, Present, and Future

Author
A. Farshad
Retired Scientific Member of ESA Department, the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherland
Abstract
Soil, a 3-dimensional component of the landscape, or simply a natural body in a soilscape with a given geopedological setting, was modeled by Jenny as S = f (Climate, Organism, Relief, Parent material, Time). To map such a complex body, the concept ‗pedon’ –the smallest volume that can be recognized as a soil had to be defined. Classically, soil is known to function as provider, controller, regulator, mechanical support, and as a filter to protect the quality of water, air, and other resources. The intention of this paper is to argue, with the help of several examples of soilscape, in (semi-) arid regions of Tunisia, Morocco and Iran, some other functions of the soils, namely those of being an archive (‗history book of the landscape‘), a guide (in soil management), and a ‗predictor‘ (sensing soil health), in other words, soilscape speaks out: an account of the past, present and future.
Keywords
Geopedology
Paleoecology
Soil conservation
Soil degradation
Soil management
Soil (land) scape
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