Dryland salinity is on the increase in the upper catchments of the central and northern river valleys of New South Wales (Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council- MDBC, 1999).

The add and semi-add regions of the world are being relied upon to provide increasing amounts of agricultural products. This is being facilitated by the increasing dependence on irrigation.

In the irrigated cotton-growing areas of south eastern Australia, there is an increasing awareness for the need for land resource information and its importance for environmental management.

Irrigation with either moderate to highly saline and\or sodic water can create problems within the root-zone.

Traditional methods of generating soil information on the field scale have involved the design and adoption of soil sampling regimes and laboratory analysis.