Dispersive Soils: Processes, Impact, and Management

Dispersive Soils redefines the understanding of soil stability across agricultural, environmental, and geotechnical contexts. Moving beyond the traditional emphasis on sodicity, it conceptualises dispersion as a cross-disciplinary phenomenon arising from coupled chemical, physical, and hydrological processes. The book elucidates the mechanisms that drive structural breakdown and links them to consequences for productivity, infrastructure performance, and ecosystem integrity.

Synthesising decades of research, the book integrates insights from soil science, hydrology, geotechnical engineering, and land management to establish consistent principles for diagnosis, prevention, and remediation. Each chapter translates mechanistic understanding into applied strategies that enhance structural resilience, support sustainable production, and safeguard environmental quality. The volume provides a rigorous conceptual and empirical basis for re-evaluating how dispersive landscapes are characterised and managed, and outlines priorities for future research to strengthen the stability and long-term sustainability of vulnerable soils.

"This is a comprehensive and well-written book that provides a good blend of the historical perspective of sodic and dispersive soils to new, more accurate indices and approaches to characterizing problematic dispersive soils."

- Emeritus Professor S.R. Grattan, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, USA