Soil Survey Information Just a Mouse Click Away

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has launched a website that provides public access to all of America’s soils information.

Roger A. Hansen, NRCS state conservationist, says this Web Soil Survey is a simple, yet powerful way for people to access and analyze soils data that contributes to every aspect of land use and development.

“Almost every decision that people make regarding land use should be based upon the type of soil at a specific location,” Hansen says. “The Web Soil Survey makes that information more readily available.”

The Web Soil Survey has been designed with three easy-to-use features: Define; View; and Explore. Users are asked to define a geographic area of interest. Once a location has been defined and projected on the computer monitor, the user has the choice to print the map and related information, save it to the computer’s hard drive or download the data for use in a geographic information system. Users can also explore the designated location for specific soils data. This flexibility provides an opportunity to build a customized report that addresses the user’s individual needs.

Agriculturally, the type of soil at a site determines what crops or trees will grow well. People can also determine from a soil survey if an area is prone to flooding, if a pond will leak, or if a site is suitable for construction. Many people have built homes without first evaluating the soil, and later had to deal with structural problems caused by soil movement, flooding or sinkholes.

“All soils are not alike, and are not suitable for the same things,” says Dennis Potter, NRCS state soil scientist.

To get an accurate picture of what soils are where, Potter says soil scientists walked most of Missouri’s 44.6 million acres. Along the way they probed the soil to collect samples for analysis. Originally, as a county was completed, the information was made available in printed form. Later, it was made available on compact disk, and now via the Internet.

Potter says Missouri was one of the first states to begin a soil survey when USDA began the process in 1899. And it has been a leader in refining the process. For example, soil surveys originally were completed along county lines. But soils don’t follow county lines. And because technology and sampling techniques changed during the 70 years of the field work, soils information sometimes did not join properly at county lines.

“The county survey is not important anymore,” Potter says. “Our work in recent years has been geared toward making the soil survey seamless. Sometime this month, we will have exact joins across county boundaries.”

Potter adds that Missouri will update its soil survey annually, and that changes can then be incorporated into the Web Soil Survey.