Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) GIS Data
Overview | National Resources Inventory | STATSGO Soils | SSURGO Soils| Other Resources | Documentation and Links
Overview
A wide range of GIS data resources are available from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Highlights include the STATSGO soils, SSURGO soils, and National Resources Inventory (NRI) all of which are documented on this page. Consult the NRCS Technical Resources page for more details.
Online Mapping and data ordering of many NRCS GIS data layers is available from the Geospatial Data Gateway.
STATSGO Soils
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| NC STATSGO data (very generalized) |
The State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO) consists of "state general soil maps made by generalizing the detailed soil survey data. The level of mapping is designed to be used for broad planning and management uses covering state, regional, and multi-state areas."
STATSGO data is downloadable in USGS Digital Line Graph (DLG-3) and Arc/Info coverage formats and projected to (Albers Conic Equal-Area): STATSGO Data Access site. Metadata, a code table, as well as extensive online documentation is available from the above Data Access site.
STATSGO data is available for North Carolina in ARC/INFO format to NCSU affiliates (State Plane 1983/meters) as part of the CGIA Corporate Geographic Database (see the Detailed Data Listing.)
STATSGO is also available nationwide in shapefile format (decimal degrees) by river subbasin as part of the EPA BASINS data collection (see the Libraries EPA BASINS page).
SSURGO Soils
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| Northern Wake Co. SSURGO data. |
The Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) Data Base consists of 1:12,000 to 1:63,360 scale detailed local soils data. "SSURGO digitizing duplicates the original soil survey maps. This level of mapping is designed for use by landowners, townships, and county natural resource planning and management. The user should be knowledgeable of soils data and their characteristics."--(NRCS site).
SSURGO data is downloadable in various formats and projections from the Soil Data Mart for most of the US (status graphic). Note that you will not be able to download the data immediately, but will instead have your request put into a queue, which may take several days to get to your request. Metadata is also available for each dataset and extensive documentation is available.
All the SSURGO spatial and tabular data for NC available during the summer of 2005 was downloaded (thanks to Tom Colson at the NCSU CEO) and is on the Geodata server under fedgov/nrcs/ncsoils. This is useful if your download request from the Soil Data Mart will take several hours or days. Files are named according to their FIPS Number.
It is recommended that you use SSURGO data from the Soil Data Mart because it has been certified by NRCS for accuracy. However, some NC counties are not available from the Soil Data Mart, but have been digitized by NC CGIA (status graphic). All NC CGIA released county layers are available in ArcInfo Coverage format and shapefiles on the Geodata server (see the Detailed Data Listing and additional CGIA data).
SSURGO data only comes with a soil mapping unit attribute. This attribute can be used to join additional soil survey attributes downloaded in tabular format from the Soil Data Mart. Contact Data Services for questions about the process.
Other NRCS Data Resources
The National Resources Inventory "...is a statistically based sample of land use and natural resource conditions and trends on U.S. nonfederal lands. It is the most comprehensive database of its kind ever attempted anywhere in the world" (NRCS). Since 1982, the NRI was conducted every 5 years; but, beginning with 2001, it is conducted annually.
New 2002 NRI data is being released as of Summer 2004. 1992 data is available on CD-ROM at the DH Hill Library Circulation Desk under call# GA59 .A15 1992 (four CD-ROMs plus manual). 1997 is the last most comprehensive inventory, and is also available on CD-ROM, but is not owned by the Libraries currently. According to the NRI website, annual inventory data is only available via the website (limited summary) or the NRI Online Analysis System used by NRI Coordinators.
See the NRCS Technical Resources page for additional data resources pertaining to water, climate, plants, agriculture, and more.
Documentation and Links
NRCS Web site
NRCS Technical Resources
NRCS Maps, Imagery, and Data Resources
Go to Libraries GIS Data List
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