The Natural

Environment
SOILS: their effect on site planning

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Soil:

Soil covers much of the land on Earth. It is made up of

minerals (rock, sand, clay, silt), air, water, and organic
material (matter from dead plants and animals). Soil
provides a substrate for plants (roots anchor in soil), a
source of food for plants, and a home for many
animals (insects, spiders, centipedes, worms,
burrowing animals, bacteria, and many others

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Soil Formation:
Soil is formed slowly as rock (the parent material)
erodes into tiny pieces near the Earth's surface.
Organic matter decays and mixes with inorganic
material (rock particles, minerals and water) to form
soil

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Soil Profile
Soil is made up of distinct
horizontal layers; these
layers are called horizons.
They range from rich,
organic upper layers
(humus and topsoil) to
underlying rocky layers
( subsoil, regolith and
bedrock).

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SOIL LAYERS
O Horizon - The top, organic layer
of soil made up mostly of leaf litter
and humus (decomposed organic
matter).

A Horizon - The layer called

topsoil; it is found below the O
horizon and above the E horizon.
Seeds germinate and plant roots
grow in this dark-colored layer. It is
made up of humus (decomposed
organic matter) mixed with mineral
particles.

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SOIL LAYERS
E Horizon - This eluviation
(leaching) layer is light in color;
this layer is beneath the A Horizon
and above the B Horizon. It is made
up mostly of sand and silt, having
lost most of its minerals and clay as
water drips through the soil (in the
process of eluviation).
B Horizon - Also called the subsoil this layer is beneath the E Horizon
and above the C Horizon. It contains
clay and mineral deposits (like iron,
aluminum oxides, and calcium
carbonate) that it receives from
layers above it when mineralized
water drips from the soil above.
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SOIL LAYERS
C Horizon - Also called regolith: the
layer beneath the B Horizon and
above the R Horizon. It consists of
slightly broken-up bedrock. Plant
roots do not penetrate into this layer;
very little organic material is found in
this layer.

R Horizon - The unweathered rock

(bedrock) layer that is beneath all
the other layers.

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Types of Soil:

There are many different types of soils, and each one has
unique characteristics, like color, texture, structure, and

mineral content. The depth

of the soil also varies. The
kind of soil in an area helps determines what type of
plants can grow. There are 12 orders (types) of soil:
Alfisols, Aridisols, Entisols, Histosols, Inceptisols,
Mollisols, Oxisols, Spodosols, Ultisols, Gelisols, Andisols,
and Vertisols.

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Soil Texture

The different particle components of soil texture work

together to produce a soil of different properties. Soil
texture can be described by describing the relative
proportion of the different components.
SAND
Sand gives an open texture, so
that the soil will normally drain
freely, but it contributes little
in the way of nutrients to the
soil.

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Soil Texture
SILT
Silt is normally made up of very
small sand particles; it also
gives few nutrients to a soil, but
it makes a soil very dense and
often difficult to cultivate

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Soil Texture
CLAY
Clay results in soils rich in
nutrient although they too
can be difficult to work.

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Soil Texture
PEAT
Peat derives from
vegetables matter

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LOAMS
Loams are the mixed soils; they
are the easiest and most
productive to work for
agriculture.
The different components do
much to determine the
availability of the nutrients to the
plants.

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Clayis a soil mixture which is made up of very fine rock

partcles.It soaks up and holds water easily.It is sticky when
wet.Tiny roots of plants cannot spread out and grow well in
clay.Clay is used for making vases, pots and jars.
Sandis formed from broken rocks.It is made up of small
grains of rocks.The particles of sand are larger than the
particles of clay.There are more air spaces between the
particles of sand so water runs through easily and dries up
easily.Sand is not good for most plants.It is used for
construction of buildings, roads and bridges.
Humusis a kind of soil that is very rich with decayed
matter, especially dead plants.It is fertile and good for
plants.
Loamis a mixture of sand, clay and humus.It is the best
kind of soil for plants.
Gravelis composed of small pieces of rocks found along
riverbanks or along other bodies of water.The particles of
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gravel are larger than the
particles of sand.Gravel is used

SOIL

ACIDITY

Soil acidity is important in determining the sorts of

plants that will thrive on the site. Acidity derives
directly from the material from which the soil
developed, but it is also influenced by various
chemical processes that happen in different types of
soil in different climates.

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SOIL

FERTILITY

Soil fertility is normally the capacity of a soil to produce a

desired crop consistently. Soil fertility is influenced by the
availability of nutrients from the soil which in turn
influenced by its structure, drainage and organic matter
content. It is which of these factors that is at the minimum
level of availability to the plants, that ultimately
determines the way in which plants react to an individual
soil.
Man frequently intervenes through adding water or
chemicals, so changing the soil structure and its
composition.
Therefore, soils can be defined as:
having a natural inherent capacity for fertility and actual
fertility which results from the soil being manipulated by
man.
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SOIL EROSION
Erosionis the process by which the topsoil is
washed away.The topsoil is the most important
part of the soil for planting purposes.
Wind, water, animals, and man are agents of
erosion.
When the topsoil is washed away, the remaining
soil will no longer be fertile.Plants will not grow
well in an unfertile soil.

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 Soil erosion can be the removal of the topsoil

by the wind or water, but it can also mean
the erosion of soil quality by the progressive
removal of nutrients as the water moves
through the soil.
This latter type of erosion is the chemical erosion of soil
which is associated with an intensification of nutrients
in soil water. Any water bodies fed by that water can
suffer eutrophication.

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Wind Erosion

Wind erosion is likely to occur where the soil is

exposed over large areas. The finer particles are lifted
into the air by the wind and can be blown varying
distances. This depends on particle size and strength
of the wind.

The best way of controlling such erosion is a mat of

vegetation. However, when that is not possible
shelterbelts must be used to limit the impact of the
wind.

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Surface Wash Erosion

Surface wash erosion is the most rapid form of
erosion. Any bare soil is likely to be eroded in heavy
rain by the associated surface wash, particularly if
the land slopes.
the only really effective measure against such erosion
is a continuous mat of vegetation which allows the
water to trickle down leaves , twigs and branches
before it hits the soil.
many land management techniques have been
developed to reduce the ill-effect of soil erosion by
water, including terracing, drainage schemes and
contour ploughing. The latter is the most effective
means for large areas of land.
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Interracing,widestepsarecutaroundtheslopesofhills.ThefamousriceterracesofBanaueandBontocareexampleofthis.

How to Prevent
Erosion?

Soil erosion and its prevention are part of site planning.

Our farmers prevent erosion by using farming methods:

Terracing
In terracing, wide steps are cut
around the slopes of hills.
The famous rice terraces of
Banaue and Bontoc are
example of this.

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How to Prevent
Erosion?
Strip Cropping
In strip cropping, different
plants are grown in
alternating rows of land.

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How to Prevent
Erosion?
Contour Farming
In contour farming, furrows
curve and wind to follow
the shape of the land.

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How to Prevent
Erosion?
Cover Cropping
Cover cropping is the practice
of planting low crops to
protect the soil from being
blown and washed away
by wind and rain.

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The simplest form of avoiding the problems

associated with soil erosion loss of fertile soils
and landslip is to avoid disturbing the soil in
the first place. The site planner should avoid
producing proposals which leave steep slopes
bare, as whatever benefit can be grained from
doing so will rapidly be lost through the
washing away of the soil. The problem of
natural chemical erosion cannot be influenced
by site planning, but the present-day problems
that results from long-term misuse of fertilizers
can be corrected by education of farmers and
national policies.

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Soil Salinity
Soil Salinity is normally only an issue for site planners
working in arid and semi-arid lands, but there it has
proved a very major limiting factor to plant growth.
Some plants have a fairly high tolerance of salinity
such as:
Date palm
Sugar beet
Cotton
Coconut
Very Low tolerance:
Beans
Citrus Fruits
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In all cases plants only accept a certain limits of salts

and in areas of really high salinity nothing can grow.
Soil salinity can be measured by experts and in a dry
climate it is important to investigate the local situation.
In dry climate it is the use of irrigation which causes
the salinity and many mistakes have been made up to
the recent past. Land that would otherwise have been
fertile has become unusable for crops.
Soil salinity can also be a problem when a land is
reclaimed from the sea or when it has been flooded.

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