Revised Source for Arkansas Soil Survey Data
Since early 2000’s, Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO) has collaborated with Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) to provide access to soils information to users through GeoStor. Arkansas’ initial soil mapping and digitization of soil surveys were completed through Soil Survey Geographic Databases (SSURGO) Initiative. The state soil survey program has moved to a new phase of soil survey modernization or update. SSURGO soil maps and SSURGO soil data tables are being reviewed and updated through this effort.
When the SSURGO data was first published on GeoStor the files were split into regions by category as a way to reduce the size so that one regional file could be processed through GeoStor’s download request. At that time there was simply no way to process a request for the entire state. These regional merges of soil information served on GeoStor were 7 to 8 years old. Today these files are outdated. The data layers don’t reflect changes made to the datasets during that time period. As a result NRCS and AGIO felt the need and the responsibility to remove the following data layers from GeoStor. The following list of layers are the titles no longer in service.
- SSURGO Use Interpretation – NE Region
- SSURGO Use Interpretation – SE Region
- SSURGO Use Interpretation – NW Region
- SSURGO Use Interpretation – SW Region
- SSURGO Crop Suitability – NW Region
- SSURGO Crop Suitability – SW Region
- SSURGO Crop Suitability – NE Region
- SSURGO Crop Suitability – SE Region
- SSURGO General Information – NW Region
- SSURGO General Information – SW Region
- SSURGO General Information – NE Region
- SSURGO General Information – SE Region
- SSURGO Surface Properties – NW Region
- SSURGO Surface Properties – SW Region
- SSURGO Surface Properties – NE Region
- SSURGO Surface Properties – SE Region
NRCS and the AGIO will continue collaborating on methodologies to serve a dynamic regional soils dataset thru the Arkansas GIS network. All datasets utilizing SSURGO as a base need to be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect changes made to the official SSURGO database. If a user has previously downloaded one of the regional SSURGO datasets from GeoStor the AGIO recommends obtaining updated copies from the NRCS. Web access to the certified SSURGO database, which is consistently maintained by NRCS, can be found at:SSURGO
http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/
