Soil resource survey of the Sumner region, Port Hills, Canterbury

Abstract

The growing concentration of population in metropolitan centres commonly results in the spread of urban areas onto land with a high value for food production. This aspect of urban growth represents poor allocation of resources and in many countries is creating agricultural and urban land use problems of large scale and complexity. The formulation of sound solutions to these problems requires comprehensive regional planning which recognizes the existence of a limited resource base to which both rural and urban development must be correctly adjusted in order to ensure a pleasant and habitable, but efficient, environment for people to live in.

The soil resources of a region are one of the most important elements of the natural resource base influencing both rural and urban development. Therefore, a need exists in any comprehensive planning programme to examine not only how land and soils are presently used but how the soils can best be used. This requires an area-wide soil survey which maps the geographic location of the various kinds of soils; measures their physical, chemical, engineering and hydrological properties; and interprets these properties for land use and planning purposes. Knowledge of the characteristics and suitability of soils are one of the most important tools which can be used to integrate rural and urban development within the limits of the natural resource base.

This paper describes in detail the distribution and characteristics of soils in the Sumner region, Port Hills, Canterbury in relation to their significance to land use planning. The significance of erosion to land use in the Sumner region is discussed and a general suitability assessment of the soils for land use is attempted.