The concepts and viewpoints of soil differ according to its use. For example to a mining engineer the soil is the debris covering the rocks and minerals which he wishes to mine and therefore for him it is a nuisance and should be disposed of. To a highway engineer, soil is the materials on which roads are to be constructed. If the properties of the soil at a site are not suitable for road construction, he will replace them with gravels, rocks and other materials.
An agriculturist or aquaculturist may view the soil as a natural body having depth, surface area and characteristic horizontal layers and formed at the earth's crest by the weathering of rocks and microbiological decomposition of organic residues. (Fig.1.2).
In terms of soil's use, agriculturists consider soil as a medium where crops are cultivated whereas aquaculturists consider soil as a medium where ponds could be constructed and suitable soil-water conditions developed to culture fish and other aquatic organisms.
