Following teh suitability classmcation concepts and the suitability classification structure proposed by FAO(1976,1983),an exercise was carried out to establish a suitability evaluation system for various rural purposes in New South Wales,This system provided a method to obtain the suitability classifications for specific rural purposes based on soil survev information(attscales between 1:50,000 to 1:500,00).Following the parametric approach,after the assesment of each land characteristic according to its influence to land use,the limitatione Hects of the land as a whole needs to be estimated.A limitation scoring method was derived in this study to quantitatively determine the suitability classes of land for specific purposes.The limitation effect of a specific land characteristic is quantitatively expressed by limitation score,and the overall limitation effects of the land as a whole are expressed by accumulated limitation score which is the summation of the limitation scores of all land characteristics,A close relationship between the accumulated limitation scores and the land use suitability classes was found.The accuracy of the results obtained by using this method was found to be at an acceptable level.