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Soil dynamics, as developed in this handbook, has been primarily concerned with a physical system composed of the soil and a machine. A machine may use the soil directly to serve some purpose such as traction; or a machine may manipulate soil to change its condition and thereby enable it to better serve some purpose-for example, plant growth. To evaluate a particular soil-machine system, the purpose for which the soil will be used must be considered. Almost without exception, the purpose for which soil is used involves a broader system of which the soil-machine system is only a subsystem. Thus, in evaluating a soil-machine system it must be considered in the context of the broader system. Methods for systems analysis will be required, particularly when the broader system is to be optimized. This chapter attempts to orient soil-machine systerms in broader systems and describe soil dynamics in such systems. A broad system can be evaluated if the various elements of the system can be quantitatively described, expressed in compatible terms, assigned relative weights of importance, and compared to standard requirements for the broad system. Unfortunately, in broad agriculturally or industrially oriented systems, various human, biological, economic, or agricultural policy elements cannot be quantitatively described.