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Courses » Soil Science and Technology

Soil Science and Technology

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This core course is aimed to provide a basic understanding of various aspects of soil science along with some state-of-the-art technologies. The objective is to provide knowledge of different physical and chemical properties of soil. Most importantly this course will impart different preparatory and exploratory data analysis approaches for unconventional digital soil mapping, modeling and mapping of continuous and categorical soil attributes, hyperspectral and proximal soil sensors and their applications for modeling of soil properties, soil pollution and remediation which are not covered in the traditional courses of soil science.

INTENDED AUDIENCE:
Agriculture, Environmental science, Agricultural engineering

CORE/ELECTIVE: Core

UG/PG: UG

PREREQUISITES: Nill

INDUSTRY SUPPORT:
1. Fertilizer companies
2. Soil testing services
3. Soil and environmental pollution consulting companies
4. Soil remote sensing solution services

2286 students have enrolled already!!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:




I am currently serving as an Assistant Professor (Soil Science) at the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. I was awarded various prestigious fellowships including the Australia Awards Fellowship from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I did my undergraduate and M.Sc degrees from BCKV and PAU in India and PhD degree in Agronomy (Soil Science emphasis) from Louisiana State University, USA. I started my career as a post-doctoral researcher at West Virginia University, USA. I joined IITKgp as faculty in 2016. I am passionate about the use of proximal and non-invasive sensors for soil management. I have more than 40 international journal publications. I am currently serving as the member of the editorial board of Geoderma, the global journal of soil science.

COURSE LAYOUT:

Week 1

Lec1:  BASIC OVERVIEW OF SOIL

Lec 2: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES OF SOILS

Lec 3: WEATHERING

Lec 4: SOIL FORMATION

Lec 5: SOIL PROFILE

Week 2

Lec 6: SOIL TAXONOMY

Lec 7: SOIL ORDERS-1

Lec 8: SOIL ORDERS-2

Lec 9: SOIL COLOUR AND SOIL TEXTURE

Lec 10: SOIL STRUCTURE

Week 3

Lec 11: SOIL TILLAGE AND SOIL DENSITY

Lec 12: SOIL POROSITY AND CONSISTENCY

Lec 13: SOIL WATER ENERGY CONCEPTS

Lec 14: MEASUREMENT OF SOIL WATER

Lec 15: TUTORIAL

Week 4

Lec 16: THE FLOW OF LIQUID WATER INTO SOIL

Lec 17: QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION OF SOIL WETNESS

Lec 18: SOIL AIR

Lec 19: SOIL TEMPRATURE

Lec 20: TUTORIAL

Week 5

Lec 21: SILICATE CLAYS-1

Lec 22: SILICATE CLAYS -2

Lec 23: SOURCES OF CHARGES ON SOIL COLLOIDS

Lec 24: CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY

Lec 25: SORPTION OF PESTICIDES IN SOIL

Week 6

Lec 26: DIFFUSE DOUBLE LAYER THEORIES

Lec 27: ADSORPTION ISOTHERMS

Lec 28: SOIL ACIDITY

Lec 29: SOIL ALKALINITY AND SALINITY

Lec 30: SUBMERGED SOILS

Week 7

Lec 31: ESSENTIAL PLANT NUTRIENTS

Lec 32: SOIL NITROGEN

Lec 33: BIOLOGICAL NITROGEN FIXATION

Lec 34: SOIL PHOSPHORUS AND POTASSIUM

Lec 35: FERTILIZERS

Week 8

Lec 36: SOIL TESTING-1

Lec 37: SOIL TESTING-2

Lec 38: SOIL ORGANIC MATTER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Lec 39: SOIL ORGANISMS

Lec 40: COMPOST

Week 9

Lec 41: SOIL EROSION AND LAND DEGRADATION

Lec 42: THE UNIVERSAL SOIL-LOSS EQUATION

Lec 43: CONSERVATION TILLAGE

Lec 44: WIND AND TILLAGE EROSION

Lec 45: TOXIC ORGANIC CHEMICALS IN SOILS

Week 10

Lec 46: REMEDIATION OF SOIL ORGANIC POLLUTION

Lec 47: SOIL CONTAMINATION WITH TOXIC INORGANIC SUBSTANCES

Lec 48: REMEDIATION OF SOIL INORGANIC POLLUTION

Lec 49: SOIL SURVEY

Lec 50: REMOTE SENSING IN SOIL SURVEY

Week 11

Lec 51: GIS AND GPS

Lec 52: GEOSTATISTICS

Lec 53: BASICS OF DIFFUSE REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Lec 54: DIFFUSE REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY FOR SOILS

Lec 55: PXRF SOIL APPLICATIONS

Week 12

Lec 56: OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL SOIL MAPPING

Lec 57: MODELING AND MAPPING OF CONTINUOUOS VARIABLES

Lec 58: MODELING AND MAPPING OF CATEGORICAL VARIABLES

Lec 59: PEDOTRASNFER FUNCTIONS

Lec 60: ACCURACY AND UNCERTAINITY OF DSM


SUGGESTED READING MATERIALS:
  
   1.     The Nature and Properties of Soils by Nyle C. Brady and Ray R. Weil 
   
   2.     Fundamentals of soil physics by Daniel Hillel 
    
   3.     Soil Fertility And Fertilizers by Havlin, Tisdale, Nelson and Beaton 

   4.   Digital Soil Mapping: An Introductory Perspective by Lagacherie, McBratney and Voltz

   



CERTIFICATION EXAM :
  • The exam is optional for a fee.
  • Date and Time of Exams: April 27th 2019 (Saturday)  Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
  • Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
  • The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published.

CERTIFICATION:

  • Final score will be calculated as : 25% assignment score + 75% final exam score
  • 25% assignment score is calculated as 25% of average of  Best 8 out of 12 assignments
  • E-Certificate will be given to those who register and write the exam and score greater than or equal to 40% final score. Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Kharagpur.It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.