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More soils data is now available and NRCS's Web Soil Survey viewing and reporting tools have new features.

SSURGO (Soil Survey Geographic Database) Update
In 2006, six soil survey areas have been SSURGO certified thus far: Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pope, Ramsey, Steele and Washington counties. That brings the total number of Minnesota counties with both tabular and spatial SSURGO coverage to 65 - all 87 counties have tabular information. A current status map can be found at www.mn.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soils/images/maps/mnssurgo.pdf 

Soil survey information is available through two websites: Web Soil Survey (see next section of this article) and Soil Data Mart. The Soil Data Mart (http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/County.aspx?State=MN) is a website that has spatial and tabular soils information available for download for use in a GIS or database application where one can also run reports or do queries and analysis.

Web Soil Survey Version 1.1 Released
Web Soil Survey (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov) is a national online web application for viewing and analyzing SSURGO data with GIS applications and report generation (see article in previous newsletter www.mngislis.org/newsletter/issue43/Soil_Maps_Reports_Online.htm).

Now WSS has been improved! Version 1.1 was released March 21 for public use. Be sure to click on "View an illustrated list of new features" to see what has been improved. Some enhancements include:

• View the map at full width
• Remove ("tear off") and position the Legend and Layers tabs
• Clear the Area of Interest (AOI)
• Zoom to an area using latitude and longitude coordinates
• Zoom to an area using PLSS township and range
• Zoom to a specific map scale
• Get the date of orthophotography on the viewable and printed map

Web Soil Survey Version 2 is due to be released this summer. Some enhancements will include:

• Include PLSS section data (township and range was included in v1.1)
• National map unit symbols
• Enlarge AOI area possibility from 10,000 to 40,000 acres

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov 

PDF format of this article.