The soil characteristics mapping of Pagar Alam City (A case study of North Pagar Alam District)

Abstract

Pagar Alam city is one of districts in South Sumatera province that has an area of ± 63,366 hectares (Monograph of the city of Pagaralam, 2013). So far, the people of Pagar Alam city, especially the north Pagar Alam district, have no reference to determine the soil type of its area; therefore this study carried out an analysis of the soil characteristics and conducted a mapping of its types of characteristics and the soil water content in the north Pagar Alam district.A geomap is a map that depicts existing image of the earth’s surface which is represented on a flat surface in a certain projection. Geomapping is a process of measuring, calculating and depicting the earth’s surface using certain methods. Soil is the surface layer of the earth that comes from parent material that has undergone an advanced process, due to natural changes under the influence of water, air, and various kinds of organisms, both living and dead (Dokuchaev 1870).After conducting 20 soil sample tests, it can be seen from the interpolated and overlayed sub-district map that the land in North Pagar Alam district has sandy silt soil where 19.69 km2 of the area has good grades of the soil and the other23.90 km2 of the area consists of poorly graded sand.