NRCS FY2018 Soil Properties and Interpretations, Derived Using gSSURGO Data and Tools
Dates
Publication Date
2020-11-20
Time Period
2017
Citation
Jeffries, M.I., Welty, J.L., and Campbell, S., 2020, NRCS FY2018 Soil Properties and Interpretations, Derived Using gSSURGO Data and Tools: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9L4M9HD.
Summary
These data depict the western United States Map Unit areas as defined by the USDA NRCS. Each Map Unit area contains information on a variety of soil properties and interpretations. The raster is to be joined to the .csv file by the field "mukey." We keep the raster and csv separate to preserve the full attribute names in the csv that would be truncated if attached to the raster. Once joined, the raster can be classified or analyzed by the columns which depict the properties and interpretations. It is important to note that each property has a corresponding component percent column to indicate how much of the map unit has the dominant property provided. For example, if the property "AASHTO Group Classification (Surface) 0 to 1cm" is [...]
Summary
These data depict the western United States Map Unit areas as defined by the USDA NRCS. Each Map Unit area contains information on a variety of soil properties and interpretations. The raster is to be joined to the .csv file by the field "mukey." We keep the raster and csv separate to preserve the full attribute names in the csv that would be truncated if attached to the raster. Once joined, the raster can be classified or analyzed by the columns which depict the properties and interpretations. It is important to note that each property has a corresponding component percent column to indicate how much of the map unit has the dominant property provided. For example, if the property "AASHTO Group Classification (Surface) 0 to 1cm" is recorded as "A-1" for a map unit, a user should also refer to the component percent field for this property (in this case 75). This means that an estimated 75% of the map unit has a "A-1" AASHTO group classification and that "A-1" is the dominant group. The property in the column is the dominant component, and so the other 25% of this map unit is comprised of other AASHTO Group Classifications. This raster attribute table was generated from the "Map Soil Properties and Interpretations" tool within the gSSURGO Mapping Toolset in the Soil Data Management Toolbox for ArcGIS™ User Guide Version 4.0 (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/PA_NRCSConsumption/download?cid=nrcseprd362255&ext=pdf) from GSSURGO that used their Map Unit Raster as the input feature (https://gdg.sc.egov.usda.gov/). The FY2018 Gridded SSURGO Map Unit Raster was created for use in national, regional, and state-wide resource planning and analysis of soils data. These data were created with guidance from the USDA NRCS. The fields named "*COMPPCT_R" can exceed 100% for some map units. The NRCS personnel are aware of and working on fixing this issue. Take caution when interpreting these areas, as they are the result of some data duplication in the master gSSURGO database. The data are considered valuable and required for timely science needs, and thus are released with this known error. The USDA NRCS are developing a data release which will replace this item when it is available. For the most up to date ssurgo releases that do not include the custom fields as this release does, see https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/home/?cid=nrcs142p2_053628#tools For additional definitions, see https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/geo/?cid=nrcs142p2_053627.
