The techniques about interpretation and mapping of low-yielding soils in the Yellow river flood plain are discussed in this paper

The landsat images were false colour MSS composites at scale of 1:200000. on the base of soil survey along selected lines

a comprehensive analysis of landforms on the images was made

and then

soil kinds were interpreted and deduced according to the soil interpretation keys established in this study. Besides

direct and/or indirect recognition and logical reasoning were also used for soil interpretation. An attempt of dividing the flood plain area into small ones with landform types was made for control of soil boundaries. After taking into account the distribution of soil association characteristic for each area

soils were interpreted at a genus level

and salt-affected soils were furtherly subdivided by the degree of salinization. The qualitative and quantitative accuracies of soil interpretation in this study were 88.90% and 80.0% respectively.