The Storie index is a method of
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both.
Rating or ratings may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...
based on
soil characteristics that govern the land's potential utilization and
productivity capacity. Developed by R. Earl Storie at University of California, Berkeley in the 1930s as a method of land valuation, it is independent of other physical or economic factors that might determine the desirability of growing certain
plants
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...
in a given location.
[R.E.Storie. Storie Index Soil Rating. 1978. Division of Agricultural Science, University of California. http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/3203.pdf .]
*The evaluation is easy to be realized, being this an advantage of this method.
*A variety of categories are comprised in few categories.
Four or five parameters are evaluated:
*A: Soil depth and
texture
Texture may refer to:
Science and technology
* Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object
* Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness
* Texture (c ...
;
*B:
Soil permeability;
*C:
Soil chemical characteristics;
*D:
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...
,
Surface runoff
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...
;
*E:
Climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
(only if it is not homogeneous, if so than it should not be included in the formula);
The index is calculated from the multiplication of these parameters, that is:
S
index = A x B x C x D x E
The disadvantage of this method is that if we have a value of zero in any category, then the result will be zero and won't be suitable for using. Another disadvantage is that the ratings are subjective.
This methodology was updated in again in 2008 by O'Geen et al. to correct for some of the subjectivity. http://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8335.pdf
References
2 O’Geen, Anthony Toby, Susan B. Southard and Randal J. Southard. “A Revised Storie Index for Use with Digital Soil Information.” Publication 8335, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, September 2008. http://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8335.pdf
3 Storie, R. Earl. “An Index for Rating the Agricultural Value of Soils,” Bulletin, California Agricultural Experiment Station, University of California, 1937.
Pedology
Agriculture
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