Mike Hodgson, who has died aged 92, was a leading soil scientist, and the driving force behind the creation in 1983 of the National Soil Map of England and Wales, an outstanding achievement in environmental science.
The map, a detailed and definitive picture of soils across the two countries, with explanatory bulletins, won an award for cartographic excellence and continues to inform critical decisions about land use, when soil health is an issue of increasing national concern.
