REPRESENTATION OF SOILS DATA FOR THE COMPUTERIZED FILING SYSTEM USED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

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Abstract
Storage of soils information in a computerized filing system provides an organized collection of available data in a central data bank, and a fast efficient system for retrieval of data. However, storage in a form compatible with the computer requires soil properties to be recorded predominantly in numerical form. The nature of the data divides soil properties into four categories and each of these data types requires different coding techniques. Continuously varying properties are recorded without modification but code numbers are assigned to dichotomous, multistate unranked, and multistate ranked properties. Although coding of most of these descriptive characteristics follows guidelines established by the Canada Soil Survey Committee (1970), coding schemes for some properties are devised and documented. The data are recorded on three distinct card types: the "Soils Series" card, the "Physical" card, and the "Analytical" card. Standardization of the coding procedures does not imply or necessitate absolute and rigid conformity to a single format scheme. Provided some uniformity exists, data collected by various agencies can be combined and computer analysis of soil properties for a wider range of soils is possible.

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