Date of Award
5-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Legacy Department
Forest Resources
Committee Chair/Advisor
Mikhailova, Elena A
Committee Member
Post , Christopher J
Committee Member
Owino , Tom O
Committee Member
Schlautman , Mark A
Abstract
Representative regional soils have agricultural, cultural, economic, environmental, and historical importance to Cameroon. Twenty seven regional representative soils have been identified in Cameroon. A set of laboratory exercises, assignments and exam questions have been developed utilizing the Regional Representative Soil Project (RRSP) that gives students an opportunity to practice interpretation of soil series descriptions, taxonomic classes, soil forming factors, and soil physical and chemical properties. The RRSP can be further enhanced and complemented with Soil Judging. Conventional soil judging as practiced in the United States has been adapted for Cameroon by a graduate student from that country using an undergraduate-level Soil Judging course taught at Clemson University together with a regional, multi-state soil judging competition. Over the course of the study, the student from Cameroon has received training on 4 of the 8 soil orders that are present in Cameroon and also encountered in the Southeastern United States. A Southeastern Region Soil Judging Handbook have been used as a guide for the development of teaching materials (tables of soil physical and chemical properties, and scorecards) for Cameroon. Adaptation of soil judging to Cameroon requires the use of geospatial technologies (e.g. global positioning system (GPS), geographic information system (GIS) and many others) to develop geospatial materials to support potential adaptation of soil judging in Cameroon. Soil map developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Forest Atlas of Cameroon, and Cameroon digital elevation model (DEM) were used to develop teaching materials. Step-by-step instructions have been provided to prepare the spatial soil judging teaching materials using ArcGIS for Cameroon. Spatial soil judging teaching materials include locations of existing soil pits, topographic maps, slope, and aspects maps. Both RRSP and Soil Judging can be incorporated into Earth Science curricula in secondary and high schools as well as bachelor's degree programs at the university-level. With time, the knowledge gained from this project will help land managers and farmers make proper use of their land. As the project expands, it is expected that a GIS soils database and related attributes from the different regions will be used to build a soils information system database for Cameroon.
Recommended Citation
Che, Celestine, "Adaptation of Regional Representative Soil Project and Soil Judging for Cameroon" (2013). All Dissertations. 286.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/286