A contractor can use the soil survey in planning, grading, and implementing an erosion control program during construction. A horticulturist can use it in selecting suitable vegetation. Soil surveys provide a basis for decisions about the kind and intensity of land management needed, including those operations that must be combined for satisfactory soil performance. For instance, soil survey information is useful in planning, designing, and implementing an irrigation system for a farm. The kind of soil and its associated characteristics help in determining the length of run, water application rate, soil amendment needs, leaching requirements, general drainage requirements, and field practices for maintaining optimum soil conditions for plant growth.
Soil surveys are also useful in helping to locate possible sources of sand, gravel, or topsoil.
They are an important component of technology transfer from agricultural research fields and plots to other areas with similar soils. Knowledge about the use and management of soils has been spread by applying experience from one location to other areas with the same or similar soils and related conditions. The hazards of nutritional deficiencies for plants, and even for animals, can be predicted from soil maps if the relationships of deficiencies to soils have been established. In recent years, important relationships have been worked out between many soils and their deficiencies of such elements as copper, boron, manganese, molybdenum, iron, cobalt, chromium, selenium, and zinc. The relationships between soils and deficiencies of phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, magnesium, and sulfur are widely known.