Audio tour of the World Soil Museum. This chapter of the audio tour explains how soils vary across landscapes. On sloping parts of the landscape, erosion and lateral flow of water often predominate. Altitude and direction of slopes, with respect to the sun, influences microclimate, such as temperature, rainfall and solar radiation. Soil formation is influenced by the combination of these factors. Soils may be poorly drained due to landscape position. In the lower parts of the landscape, such as valley bottoms, soils often accumulate water and sediments, from higher parts of the terrain. These include soils with a shallow groundwater table.