Resurrection of Soil Surveys: a case study of the acid sulphate soils of The Gambia.

Abstract. Statistical techniques are used to test and re-interpret archival data from soil surveys of the tidal floodplain of the River Gambia. Key soil attributes include salinity, ripeness and the acid sulphate hazard. Soil taxonomic units derived by cluster analysis of all the validated data do not correspond with the intuitively-defined soil series of the original surveys. However they do correspond with practical soil mapping units, and distinguish areas of quite different geotechnical behaviour, kinds and degrees of salinity and acid sulphate hazard.