Posted: February 15th, 2015

Land capability scheme and rating table

Land capability scheme and rating table

Assignment 2: Land Capability – Developing a Land Capability Scheme and Rating Table for the Blackville area
You are going to examine land capability and how to develop and define a land capability scheme and rating table to place land units of varying land quality into appropriate land capability classes for a particular land use. The scheme you devise should apply to the aerial photo you have already classified into land units, but should have wider applicability than just the aerial photograph. Please remember that the land unit classification is summarising the land quality of each unit, while land capability is about forming an opinion on the optimal land use for that particular land unit that leads to minimal land degradation and intervention required by management. This means that for each land unit you need to attribute it to a capability class ranging from Class 1 (best land) to Class 5 (worst land), with qualifiers which indicate the most limiting attribute that defined the overall capability of the land unit.
Please examine your aerial photograph, and compare your land unit classification against the one all the class will be using. I have given you a spare copy of the aerial photo to place your land capability classes onto, at a later date.
Objectives of Assignment
To complete the assignment you need to be able to answer questions 1 to 5, and in addition provide a legend with your land capability map that describes/defines the land capability classes, as well as a rating table that demonstrates to me the process you used to assign land capability classes to each land unit.
1. What was the conceptual framework YOU used to derive the land capability scheme?
2. What purpose was the land capability scheme designed for and what were the underlying objectives or reasons for the land capability scheme?
3. Justify the factors YOU selected to form your land capability rating table, and were used to assign land capability classes for each land unit, that is why were they important?
4. Describe YOUR land capability scheme – number of classes, types of land use, the class definitions, the type of information required to define classes. Do the criteria used to define classes adequately cover all the social, economic and biophysical factors that need to be considered? (refer to your rating table and legend)
5. If your scheme was to be used what is required in terms of information, people and resources to use this scheme?
Reference Material
Read the notes on Rural Land Capability, and refer to the NSWDPI website:
Charman, P. E. and Murphy, B. W. (Eds) (2000) (2nd Edition). Soils: Their Properties and Management. Section 15.2: Rural Land Capability, pp. 278-284. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. (in e-reserve)
Grose, J. (1999). Land Capability Handbook. DPIWE. Pp1-79 http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Publications/LBUN-6EXA9F?open
Hulme, T., Grosskopf, T., Hindle, J., (2002) Agricultural Land Classification. AGdex AC.25, NSW DPI: p1-15. http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/189697/ag-land-classification.pdf
Van Gool, D., Tille, P., and Moore, G. (2005) Land Evalauation Standards for Land Resource Mapping (3rd ed). Resource Management Technical Report No 298. Dept of Agriculture, WA. Part 3 can be found at: http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/lwe/rpm/landcap/tr298_part3.pdf
Outcomes per individual
1. Classify the land into land units. Already assessed, when undertaking the aerial photograph interpretation.
2. Take the generic land unit classification aerial photo and devise a land capability scheme and rating table to place the land unit into capability classes. I do not expect this to be completed in the time allotted but to provide some answers to the above questions and to consider where information can be obtained from such as risk of salinity, soil types and erosion hazard eg flooding.
o Classify the same aerial photo into land capability classes, (clean copy provided) with a legend of the capability classes and definition.
o Provide the land capability scheme and rating table which is the basis for the defining the classes, and assigning land capability classes for each land unit.
o Provide answers to the above questions.
Take the generic land unit classification aerial photo and devise a land capability scheme and rating table to place the land units into capability classes
1. Classify the same aerial photo into land capability classes, (clean copy provided) (3)
2. Provide the land capability scheme or rating table which is the basis for the classes (7)
3. Provide answers to the questions (10, 2 points each).
• What was the conceptual framework YOU used to derive the land capability scheme?
• What purpose was the land capability scheme designed for and what were the underlying objectives or reasons for the land capability scheme?
• Justify the factors YOU selected to form your land capability rating table, and were used to assign land capability classes for each land unit, that is why were they important?
• Describe YOUR land capability scheme – number of classes, types of land use, the class definitions, the type of information required to define classes. Do the criteria used to define classes adequately cover all the social, economic and biophysical factors that need to be considered? (refer to your rating table and legend)
• If your scheme was to be used what is required in terms of information, people and resources to use this scheme?