Under consideration are the ways for the development and improvement of methods to compile soil maps in Russia as based upon the information on landforms and the earth surface obtained by different aerial and outer space devices. The ever increasing development of aviation, cosmonautics and modification of electronic engineering resulted in great changes taken place in the soil studies, thus affecting the quality and readability of soil maps. The ways for obtaining and decoding of the satellite imagery are described. The methods to study different characteristics of soil properties are considered as well. The automated methods of soil identification and mapping are realized now through the materials of remote sounding of the Earth’s surface.

Under discussion are problems of soil remote monitoring and the monitoring over the salinity of irrigated lands in particular. It is shown that the given problem has become very acute not only in Middle Asia but also in the southern part of Russia. The experience gained in studying the soil salinity under cotton plantations can be applicable for soil monitoring in the other regions including the irrigated soils in the south of Russia.

The experience gained in the use of visual and digital decoding methods of satellite imagery is considered (analysis of curves for spectral images, method of basic components) with the view of comparing their advantages for application in soil studies within the different natural zones of the country. Some methodical approaches are proposed to modify the decoding process for obtaining the more reliable information on the studied object

Possibilities to use the archive images obtained by Landsat TM5 in different years have been comprehensively analyzed with the aim at recognizing the soils with different salinity degree. Special approaches were proposed to study the dynamics of saline soils by using the satellite imagery. Based upon a computer analysis of the information transmitted by Landsat in 1987-1988 and 2009-2010 as well as the data of field soil survey, it seemed reasonable to identify changes in the area of such soils in Shauldersk irrigated massive (the South-Kazakhstan region, Republic of Kazakhstan). It was concluded that the share of saline soils revealed an increase at the studied territory within the period from 1987 to 2010.

The state of the exposed surface of arable soils strongly varies in time and depends on properties of the upper soil horizon, meteorological conditions, and specific character of its usage. A change of the arable soil surface has a significant effect on their image on remote sensing data. For the maximum extraction of information about the spatial heterogeneities of soil properties satellite survey must be carried out before the first treatment of the surface of arable soils in spring.

A soil-environmental analysis of the urbanized ecosystem represented by the key site “Kurilovo” in New Moscow has been made using the images obtained by pilotless air-craft and modern GIS-technologies. In the course of this study the decoding of remote materials and field soil survey were conducted to describe the vegetation and soils; the geochemical analysis of soil samples was made with the aim at compiling an electronic ecological map of the area under study. These studies allowed us to specify the boundaries of the key area, to evaluate the vegetation and soil status in forests, residential and industrial areas as well as to identify the areas covered by contaminated soils.