US 6,959,245 B2 · Soil and topography surveying

Abstract

Methods of characterizing subsurface conditions in a selected geographic region previously associated as a whole with a specific subsurface material characteristic reference profile such as from a USDA-NRCS soil survey. The method includes deploying a sensing tool at selected positions within the geographic region to determine a depth-referenced subsurface material characteristic such as soil type or strata, comparing the determined subsurface material characteristic to the subsurface material characteristic reference profile associated with the geographic region to determine a correlation between the subsurface material characteristic reference profile and the depth-referenced subsurface material characteristic, and then deciding whether to deploy the tool at another position, and at what optimum position to deploy the tool, by considering the correlation.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method of characterizing subsurface conditions in a selected geographic region previously surveyed to identify discrete zones within the region corresponding to a reference soil series having an associated description of soil layers corresponding to the soil series and soil properties common to each layer, the method comprising

selecting a test position in each identified zone;
deploying a sensing tool at the selected position within the geographic region, the tool constructed to be responsive to a selected subsurface material attribute;
and
determining, from a signal received from the deployed tool, a subsurface material characteristic at multiple, discrete depths corresponding to layer positions described in the reference soil series description.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Soil and topography surveying

Life of this patent

Soil and topography surveying

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims11