Land Evaluation for Rural Purposes [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Since time immemorial, man has evaluated land for his own, mainly rural, purposes. He placed his houses on high parts of levees in river plains, planted his wheat on well-drained land or his rice where it would be inundated at the proper time. The last hundred years have seen an ever-accelerating accumulation of data on the suitability of land for different rural purposes - but not necessarily in a form available to, and digestible by, present and potential users of land or planners and decision-makers. Within the las't fifty years, various systems of evaluating soil or land suitability have been initiated. Germany devised a numerical (parametric) system for ranking the value of land for agriculture. A system developed in the USA classifies general suitability for agriculture, uniform over half a continent but limited to soil suitability. Another American system, which includes some non-soil land factors like the availability and cost of water, is only applicable to individual irrigation projects. These, and other systems in other countries, are restricted to single uses, broadly or more narrowly defined. Over the last ten years, a movement has been obvious in the direction of parallel classifications for different uses, which enable sound planning decisions to be made where possible uses are competing with one another for the same land. Canada is at the forefront of this movement, with its effective computer-based system. By now most countries in the world have established their own particular systems of land evaluation, making it difficult for data and experience gained in one country to be transferred to another, even where conditions are similar. Clearly there-was a need for an international exchange of ideas and information on the subject of land evaluation for rural purposes, and there was general agreement on the need for international standards. These needs could best be served, it was thought, by an international expert consultation on the subject, to be convened after adequate preparation. Conceived in 1970, the idea of such a consultation was to develop a, framework of land evaluation that would be widely acceptable to survey and evaluation organizations and would meet the needs of the widest range of possible users. Preparatory work for the consultation was undertaken by two multidsciplinary committees: one in The Netherlands, the other within FAG. A document, jointly prepared by these two committees, was to provide the background for discussions at the consultation.