Soil Conservation

Contents: Preface. 1. Man and soil erosion. 2. The mechanics of erosion. 3. The physics of rainfall. 4. The erosivity of rainfall. 5. The erodibility of soil. 6. The estimation of surface runoff. 7. Estimating soil loss. 8. Erosion research methods. 9. Land use and soil conservation. 10. Physical erosion control measures. 11. Erosion control through land husbandry. 12. Gully erosion. 13. Erosion control on non-arable land. 14. Policies and implementation. Appendices.

Soil conservation is a key text only for agriculture engineers, but also for students of agriculture forestry geography geology and ecology indeed all those concerned with soil erosion. This new and fully revised edition of Norman Hudson’s standard work.

Gives information on recent advances including the greater emphasis on sound land use and farming methods, the importance of involving the farmer at all stage, the need for low cost low labour methods.
Shows how research, theory and practice can be applied in the developing countries.

Presents the engineering approach to soil conservation in a simple common sense way.

The text reflects the postgraduate course in soil conservation at Silsoe College as taught to students from over 40 different countries. The result is a teaching text which will be of use in all countries where soil conservation is a major consideration in agricultural development.
After 13 years as a Conservation Officer and Researcher in Africa, Norman Hudson taught for 20 years at Silsoe College (formerly the National College of Agricultural Engineering, a faculty of cranfield university and now practices as a consultant. He has lectured at universities throughout the world, and has studied soil conservation in more than 40 different countries. He has worked as a consultant for FAO, The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, The international founder for agricultural development and aid agencies of Britain, the USA and Sweden.