A procedure is described for recovering a representative soil sample from complex terrain for the purpose of determining the integrated radionuclide inventory deposited in the area. The precision of the inventory estimates is shown to be ±10% or less for137Cs and239+240Pu, and there is no statistically significant bias in the inventory estimates for the sampling location compared to the estimates made by other techniques. In complex terrains, the radiochemical composition of the soil beneath the unvegetated surfaces (desert pavement), grass, bush, and trees is shown to vary. These variations are interpreted to be due to changes in the translocation efficiency of particles of different size from the desert pavement to the soil beneath the vegetated covers.