Theoretical development of a natural soil-landscape classification system: An interdisciplinary approach

Abstract

It is proposed to use the General Systems Theory (open system) approach and the General Theory of Classification to make progress in soil classification. It is shown that on this basis it is possible to develop the theoretical basis for a natural soil-landscape classification system, which could serve as a universal one. The main difference between this classification system and existing ones is in the consideration of the natural soil not only as a self-sufficient system (natural body), but also as a derived element of the natural landscape system, that is, as a result of the interaction of the basic system elements - rocks, air, water and organisms. It follows from this that, since soils are derived landscape elements, their boundaries coincide with the boundaries of the corresponding landscapes, and therefore the successive division of the landscapes into classes and subclasses means the simultaneous division of the associated soils. Thus, the proposed classification system is genetic because it not only divides natural soils according to their properties, but also reveals the relationship between them and the causes (factors) of their formation, as well as between their properties and properties of basic landscape elements. Other distinctive features of the classification system, which determine its structure, content, nomenclature and type, are the distinction between differentiating and diagnostic criteria and the subordination of the selection and ranking of differentiating criteria to the rules. The developed principles of classification were tested when creating a scheme of the classification system for the European part of Russia in the process of multi-scale soil-landscape GIS mapping.