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Land degradation surveys in Australia may not have fully delineated the nature and extent of wind erosion, owing perhaps, to a shortage of quantitative data on wind erosion rates and to the subtle and transient nature of field evidence. The Ew Index of wind erosion demonstrates that regional climatic factors (i.e. effective soil moisture and wind erosivity) have a significant influence upon wind erosion rates (measured by dust storm frequencies). Also, a map of wind erosion classes shows areas where wind erosion is increased or decreased by local conditions of soil/sediment erodibility and/or agricultural and pastoral activities.

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The Coulter Multisizer has clearly defined strengths and weaknesses as a particle-sizing instrument. It is easier to operate than its Coulter predecessors, though less so than several of its competitors. The Multisizer is best suited to handle very small samples with a narrow particle-size range, such as aeolian dusts and other sediments available only in small quantities. For such samples, Multisizer analysis times are short, resolution is very high (256 size classes) and reproducibility is good. The Multisizer is less well suited to soils and other samples available in large quantities and with a broad particle-size range. For soil particle-size analyses a composite method is proposed involving: Multisizer (2-75 µm), Pipette (<2 µm) and Sieve (>75 µm).