Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soil/Soil Directory Structure Archive 1

Wikipedia has needed a Soil directory to distance the project from the soil science for better accuracy, a more balanced presentation, and in a few cases, to maintain neutrality.

• 1 We could place a Category:Soil under the Category:Soil science ala Commons:Category:Soil but I don't think that is sufficiently responsive to the the POV issue.

• 2 For those articles that fall within the context of soil, the natural resource, we have several options:
  • We can categorize the article under one of the following categories:
    • Category:Natural resources (8 soil-related articles as of 02:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC))
    • Category:Non-renewable resources (0 soil-related articles as of 02:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC))
    • Category:Renewable resources (0 soil-related articles as of 02:23, 26 November 2007 (UTC))
    • We could create Category:Soil under either one or the other of the above categories.

• Possible sub categories of Category:Soil:
• Category:Types of soils
  • Category:Soil texture
  • Category:Soil taxonomic classes
    • Category:USDA soil taxonomic classes
    • Category:Australian soil taxonomic classes
    • Category:FAO soil taxonomic classes
  • Category:U. S. and Canadian soil series
  • Category:U. S. state soils (ala Category:U.S._state_soil

Note: Types of soil is a sub-cat of Category:Categories by type

• Category:Soil management
• Category:Soil resources

• We need a structure that will avoid looping

• A structure that uses multiple paths to get to an article is OK:
  • Nature>Natural Resources>Soil>Types of soil>(specific soil type article)
  • Nature>Natural Sciences>Earth sciences>Soil Science>Pedology>(specific soil type article)
  • Nature>Natural Sciences>Earth sciences>Physical geography>Pedology>(specific soil type article)

My inclination is to start with a Category:Types of soil under Category:Non-renewable resourcesCategory:Renewable resources and cat the List of vineyard soil types, for instance. Then on to cat all the U.S. state soils, other soil series, and taxonomic soil classification. The next step, potentially anyway, would be to add the soil textures sand, silt, clay, and loam, as soil types. The soil type article would have to evolve in step with the category use, and will need references to support that taxonomic classes and soil series are generally accepted as soil types. -- Paleorthid (talk) 17:12, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Despite observations to the contrary, placing soil articles under Category:Renewable resources is currently more consistent with WP than under Category:Non-renewable resources, which is similarly supportable with external references. -- Paleorthid 22:29, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Considering that the renewable/non-renewable status is somewhat debatable, that a few soils articles have already been categorized as natural resources, as has the water category, it looks like the soil category should go under natural resources. -- Paleorthid 05:24, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I have created Category:Soil as a sub-directory of Category:Natural resources. -- Paleorthid 17:28, 1 December 2007 (UTC)