Assisting nonsoil specialists to identify soil types for land management: an approach using a soil identification key and toposequence models

Conventional soil survey information is often unclear except to specialists. An approach using soil toposequences and a soil identification key was used to aid the translation of soil survey information into a form suitable for a nonspecialist audience with a case study from B runei. S oil T axonomy was used to characterize the major soil types; however, to assist end users, a complementary special‐purpose soil classification system was developed in the form of a soil identification key using plain language terms in E nglish that were also translated into M alay. Easily recognized soil features such as depth, colour and texture were used to categorize soils to match S oil T axonomy classes. To complement the soil identification key, conceptual soil toposequence models presented the soil distribution patterns in a visual format that local land users understood. Legacy soil survey information along with a widespread distribution of 172 soil sites from 35 traverses in 16 study areas provided a dataset to develop and test soil toposequence models and the soil identification key which both proved reliable and robust. The approach demonstrated in B runei could be applied to other countries and landscapes.