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Category # 1. Land Suitability Class:
It is a broad grouping of lands and it can be grouped into:
(a) Land suitable for cultivation and
(b) Land not suitable for cultivation because of various constraints like excessive wetness or dryness, extreme variation in slopes etc.
Category # 2. Land Capability Classes:
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It consists of eight classes viz. Class I to Class VIII. Classes I through IV can be used for cultivation and classes V through VIII cannot be cultivated in their present state under normal management.
Category # 3. Land Capability Sub-class:
It is a sub-group of land capability class, indicates the kind of limitations encountered in the management and use of the land.
The soil capability sub-classes recognized are:
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e—erosion hazard is the main limitation
w—wetness
s—shallow, droughty or stony
c—climate, too cold or too dry
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These are indicated on the land capability maps by the above-mentioned symbols. In class I land, there is no limitation. In other classes like Class II, if there is problem of wetness, this is indicated by IIw.
Category # 4. Land Capability Units:
It is the further sub-divisions of the land capability subclasses. Soils in one unit are enough alike to be suited to the same crops and pasture plants, to require similar management and to have similar productivity and other responses to management.
Soils in a land capability unit are characteristically similar having similar potentialities and hazards. A given land capability unit can be used by farmers directly for farm planning and other uses.
If the existing limitations can be permanently removed or reduced by following appropriate measures like provisions of irrigation, drainage, control of gullies and construction of flood controlling structure etc., then the land capability class can be changed towards a better class. A further deterioration of the existing conditions will shift the capability to a worse class.
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As an output from soil survey, classification provides a framework for making local generalisation about soil, based on the properties of the soil series identified.
Recently, for making soil survey data a more precise and useful, geographic information system (GIS) and soil information system (SIS) techniques are being used to give physical distribution of soil classes, to assess full range of soil variability, to relate individual data with the spatial variability of social properties, to interpret individual components of map units and other current information about land use practices through a comprehensive electronic database.
However, of late, these techniques have been widely used to increase efficiency and speed of the soil survey and land use planning programme. These modern systems were developed mainly because it was not possible for humans to handle in an orderly way the huge amounts of data derived from soil and land surveys until and unless advanced computer hardware and software technology is used for the purpose.
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