This map service is an information surface which displays the (nonirrigated) land capability class of each soil map unit based upon the dominant component in the soil map unit.  Every soil component in the United States may be classified under one of the following land capability class categories:

1. Soils have slight limitations that restrict their use.
2. Soils have moderate limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices.
3. Soils have severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require special conservation practices, or both.
4. Soils have very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or require very careful management, or both.
5. Soils have little or no hazard of erosion but have oth

This map service is an information surface which displays the (nonirrigated) land capability class of each soil map unit based upon the dominant component in the soil map unit.  Every soil component in the United States may be classified under one of the following land capability class categories:

1. Soils have slight limitations that restrict their use.
2. Soils have moderate limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices.
3. Soils have severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require special conservation practices, or both.
4. Soils have very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or require very careful management, or both.
5. Soils have little or no hazard of erosion but have other limitations, impractical to remove, that limit their use mainly to pasture, range, forestland, or wildlife food and cover.
6. Soils have severe limitations that make them generally unsuited to cultivation and that limit their use mainly to pasture, range, forestland, or wildlife food and cover.
7. Soils have very severe limitations that make them unsuited to cultivation and that restrict their use mainly to grazing, forestland, or wildlife.
8. Soils and miscellaneous areas have limitations that preclude their use for commercial plant production and limit their use to recreation, wildlife, or water supply or for aesthetic purposes.

In general, the lower the land capability class code, the more capable the land is of growing crops.

Esri is providing NRCS SSURGO content here without modification except for some cartography and publishing necessary to facilitate esri user access to these data.  Of course, esri will continue to update this information as new editions of the SSURGO dataset are published by NRCS.

This map service is a representation of the NRCS SSURGO data table MUAGGATT, field NICCDCD.  The map service will display at scales between 15,000 and 600,000, but the intended scale of the data is 1:24,000.  It is based entirely on the US Natural Resources Conservation Service SSURGO polygon dataset, mapped for every part of the United States that has come under survey.  Some parts of the United States have not yet been mapped, and in a sense the SSURGO dataset is a seamless collection of individual soil survey maps rather than a single map for the whole United States.  As a result, there may be inconsistencies between adjacent surveys because surveys may have been compiled in different decades and with slightly different methods and staff.

The map service is being served to you from a service in the amazon cloud.  The map service is published in unprojected geographic space, in coordinate system WGS84.  Because the map is published unprojected, it can be projected dynamically to order into the projection of your choosing.  This means you can use the map service in any map, not just a "web mercator" projection.  This also may mean it will take a second or two to draw your map to order.  We welcome your comments on the speed and convenience of this map service.

For best results, this map service is designed to be shown over relief with about 50% transparency.  We also recommend for context using the US Hydro Reference Overlay available from arcgis.com here.

A web map that combines this service with a terrain basemap and the US Hydro Reference Overlay is available here.