SDE Feature Class
Purpose
SSURGO depicts information about the kinds and distribution of soils on the landscape. The soil map and data used in the SSURGO product were prepared by soil scientists as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey.
Description
This data set is a digital soil survey and generally is the most detailed level of soil geographic data developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The information was prepared by digitizing maps, by compiling information onto a planimetric correct base and digitizing, or by revising digitized maps using remotely sensed and other information. This data set consists of georeferenced digital map data and computerized attribute data. The map data are in a soil survey area extent format and include a detailed, field verified inventory of soils and miscellaneous areas that normally occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped. A special soil features layer (point and line features) is optional. This layer displays the location of features too small to delineate at the mapping scale, but they are large enough and contrasting enough to significantly influence use and management. The soil map units are linked to attributes in the National Soil Information System relational database, which gives the proportionate extent of the component soils and their properties.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, should be acknowledged as the data source in products derived from these data. This data set is not designed for use as a primary regulatory tool in permitting or citing decisions, but may be used as a reference source. This is public information and may be interpreted by organizations, agencies, units of government, or others based on needs; however, they are responsible for the appropriate application. Federal, State, or local regulatory bodies are not to reassign to the Natural Resources Conservation Service any authority for the decisions that they make. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will not perform any evaluations of these maps for purposes related solely to State or local regulatory programs. Photographic or digital enlargement of these maps to scales greater than at which they were originally mapped can cause misinterpretation of the data. If enlarged, maps do not show the small areas of contrasting soils that could have been shown at a larger scale. The depicted soil boundaries, interpretations, and analysis derived from them do not eliminate the need for onsite sampling, testing, and detailed study of specific sites for intensive uses. Thus, these data and their interpretations are intended for planning purposes only. Digital data files are periodically updated. Files are dated, and users are responsible for obtaining the latest version of the data.
Publication Date
2006-07-25
Last Revision Date
Data not provided. Contact Resource or Metadata contact under Contact Info Tab.
Credits
There are no credits for this item.
Keywords
jeflib, usda, scs, nrcs, soil, survey, resource
Location Keywords
Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, KY
Temporal Keywords
There are no tags for this item.
Digital versions of hydrography, cultural features, and other associated layers that are not part of the SSURGO data set may be available from the primary organization listed in the Point of Contact.
Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, no warranty expressed or implied is made by the Agency regarding the utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will warrant the delivery of this product in computer readable format, and will offer appropriate adjustment of credit when the product is determined unreadable by correctly adjusted computer input peripherals, or when the physical medium is delivered in damaged condition. Request for adjustment of credit must be made within 90 days from the date of this shipment from the ordering site. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor any of its agencies are liable for misuse of the data, for damage, for transmission of viruses, or for computer contamination through the distribution of these data sets. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, should be acknowledged as the data source in products derived from these data. This data set is not designed for use as a primary regulatory tool in permitting or citing decisions, but may be used as a reference source. This is public information and may be interpreted by organizations, agencies, units of government, or others based on needs; however, they are responsible for the appropriate application. Federal, State, or local regulatory bodies are not to reassign to the Natural Resources Conservation Service any authority for the decisions that they make. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will not perform any evaluations of these maps for purposes related solely to State or local regulatory programs. Photographic or digital enlargement of these maps to scales greater than at which they were originally mapped can cause misinterpretation of the data. If enlarged, maps do not show the small areas of contrasting soils that could have been shown at a larger scale. The depicted soil boundaries, interpretations, and analysis derived from them do not eliminate the need for onsite sampling, testing, and detailed study of specific sites for intensive uses. Thus, these data and their interpretations are intended for planning purposes only. Digital data files are periodically updated. Files are dated, and users are responsible for obtaining the latest version of the data.
2006
publication date
publication date
publication date
Visit the above mentioned Internet Web Site, select state or territory, then select individual soil survey area of interest. Spatial line data and locations of special feature symbols are in ESRI ArcGIS (ArcView,ArcInfo) shapefile, coverage and interchange (i.e., export) formats. The National Soil Information System attribute soil data are available in variable length, pipe delimited, ASCII file format.
publication date
Special Soil Features represent soil, miscellaneous area, or landform features that are too small to be digitized as soil delineations (area features).
Agricultural Handbook 18, Soil Survey Manual, 1993, USDA, SCS.
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Abbreviation for the soil name
The nonirrigated land capability classification. It does not include the Capability Subclass.
| I | Soils have slight limitations that restrict their use |
| II | Soils have moderate limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices. |
| III | Soils have severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require very careful management, or both. |
| IV | Soils have very severe limitations that restrict the choice of plants or require very careful management, or both |
| V | Soils have little or no hazard of erosion but have other limitations, impractical to remove, that limit their use mainly to pasture, range, forestland, or wildlife food and cover. |
| VI | Soils have severe limitations that make them generally unsuited to cultivation and that limit their use mainly to pasture, range, forestland, or wildlife food and cover. |
| VII | Soils have very severe limitations that make them unsuited to cultivation and that their use mainly to grazing, forestland, or wildlife. |
| VIII | Soils and miscellaneous areas have limitations that preclude their use for commercial plant production and limit their use to recreation, wildlife, or water supply or for esthetic purposes. |
| NA | Not Applicable |
Hydrologic Group
A Group of soils having similar runoff potential under similar storm and cover conditions.
| A | Soils in this group have low runoff potential when thoroughly wet. Water is transmitted freely through the soil. Group A soils typically have less than 10 percent clay and more than 90 percent sand or gravel and have gravel or sand textures. Some soils having loamy sand, sandy loam, loam or silt loam textures may be placed in this group if they are well aggregated, of low bulk density, or contain greater than 35 percent rock fragments. |
| B | Soils in this group have moderately low runoff potential when thoroughly wet. Water transmission through the soil is unimpeded. Group B soils typicallyhave between 10 percent and 20 percent clay and 50 percent to 90 percent sand and have loamy sand or sandy loam textures. Some soils having loam, silt loam, silt, or sandy clay loam textures may be placed in this group if they are well aggregated, of low bulk density, or contain greater than 35 percent rock fragments. |
| C | Soils in this group have moderately high runoff potential when thoroughly wet. Water transmission through the soil is somewhat restricted. Group C soils typically have between 20 percent and 40 percent clay and less than 50 percent sand and have loam, silt loam, sandy clay loam, clay loam, and silty clay loam textures. Some soils having clay, silty clay, or sandy clay textures may be placed in this group if they are well aggregated, of low bulk density, or contain greater than 35 percent rock fragments. |
| D | Soils in this group have high runoff potential when thoroughly wet. Water movement through the soil is restricted or very restricted. Group D soils typically have greater than 40 percent clay, less than 50 percent sand, and have clayey textures. In some areas, they also have high shrink-swell potential. All soils with a depth to a water impermeable layer less than 50 centimeters [20 inches] and all soils with a water table within 60 centimeters [24 inches] of the surface are in this group. |
| A/D, B/D, and C/D | Certain wet soils are placed in group D based solely on the presence of a water table within 60 centimeters [24 inches] of the surface even though the saturated hydraulic conductivity may be favorable for water transmission. If these soils can be adequately drained, then they are assigned to dual hydrologic soil groups (A/D, B/D, and C/D) based on their saturated hydraulic conductivity and the water table depth when drained. The first letter applies to the drained condition and the second to the undrained condition. For the purpose of hydrologic soil group, adequately drained means that the seasonal high water table is kept at least 60 centimeters [24 inches] below the surface in a soil where it would be higher in a natural state. |
| NA | Not Applicable |
Hydric soils are defined by the National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils (NTCHS) as soils that formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). THese soils, under natural conditions, are either saturated or inundated long enough during the growing season to support the growth and reproduction of hydrophytic vegetation.
| NA | Not Applicable |
| DNMHC | Does not meet Hydric Criteria |
| H | Hydric Soil |
Description of the soil
Slope of the soil. The slope is usually listed as a percentage range.
| A | 0 - 2 percent slope |
| B | 0 - 4 percent slope |
| C | 0 - 6 percent slope |
| D | 0 -12 percent slope |
| E | 0 -50 percent slope |
| F | 2 - 6 percent slope |
| G | 2 - 25 percent slope |
| H | 2 - 75 percent slope |
| I | 6 -12 percent slope |
| J | 12 -20 percent slope |
| K | 12 - 25 percent slope |
| L | 12 - 50 percent slope |
| M | 12 - 60 percent slope |
| N | 20 - 50 percent slope |
| O | 25 - 50 percent slope |
| P | 25 -55 percent slope |
| Q | 25 - 60 percent slope |
| R | 12 percent slope |
| NA | Not Applicable |
The secondary category in the land capability classification system.
| e | Subclass e is made up of soils for which the susceptibility to erosion is the dominant problem or hazard affecting their use. Erosion susceptibility and past erosion damage are the major soil factors that affect soils in this subclass. |
| w | Subclass w is made up of soils for which excess water is the dominant hazard or limitation affecting their use. Poor soil drainage, wetness, a high water table, and overflow are the factors that affect soils in this subclass. |
| s | Subclass s is made up of soils that have soil limitations within the rooting zone, such as shallowness of the rooting zone, stones, low moisture-holding capacity, low fertility that is difficult to correct, and salinity or sodium content. |
| c | Subclass c is made up of soils for which the climate (the temperature or lack of moisture) is the major hazard or limitation affecting their use. |
| NA | Not Applicable |
| NONE | No Subclass is designated |
Nonirrigated land capability classification. Includes the Capability Subclass. Also known as the Map Unit.
| 1 | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 2e | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 2w | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 3e | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 3w | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 4e | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 4w | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 5w | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 6e | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| 7e | See attribute definitions for SOIL_CAP & LCSUBCLASS |
| NA | Not Applicable |
Soils that are considered as prime and other important farmlands. Prime farmland is land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops and that is available for these uses.
| All Areas are prime farmland | Farmland classification |
| Farmland of statewide importance | Farmland classification |
| Not prime farmland | Soil not considered as prime farmland |
The soils susceptibility to erosion. Erosion is the group of natural processes including weathering, dissolution, abrasion, corrosion, and transportation by which earthy or rock material is removed from any part of the earth's surface.
| Highly erodible land | Soil with high potential to be eroded |
| Not highly erodible land | Soil not highly erodible |
| Not Classified | Soil not classified as to its erodible condition |
Soils differ in size and shape of their areas, in degree of contrast with adjacent soils, and in geographic relationships. Four kinds of map units are used in soil surveys to show the relationshups: consociations, complexes, associations, and undifferentiated groups.
| Consociations | In a consociation, delineated areas are dominated by a single soil taxon (or miscellsneous area) and similar soils. As a rule, at least one-half of the pedons in each delineation of a soil consociation are of the same soil components that provide the name for the map unit. Most of the remainder of the delineation consists of soil components so similar to the named soil that major intrepretations are not affected significantly. |
| Complexes and associations | Complexes and associations consist of two or more dissimilar components occurring in a regularly repeating pattern. Only the following arbitrary rule related to mapping scale determines whether the name complex or association should be used. The major components of a complex cannot be mapped separately at a scale of about 1:24,000. The major components of an association can be separated at a scale of about 1:24,000. In either case, the major components are sufficiently different in morphology or behavior that the map unit cannot be called a consociation. In each delineation of either a complex or an association, each major component is normally present, through their proportions may vary appreciably from one delineation to another. The total amount of inclusions in a map unit that are dissimilar to any of the major components does not exceed about 15 percent if limiting and 25 percent if nonlimiting, and a single kind of dissimilar limiting inclusion generally does not exceed 10 percent if very contrasting. |
| Not Classified | No soil classification. Represents map polygons that are water bodies, thus no soil is involved. |
A U.S.D.A. number assigned to each soil type (or map unit).
The potential of the soil to erode
| HE | Highly Erodible |
| NHE | Not Highly Erodible |
| Not C | Not Classified for erodibility potential |
Area of specific soil in acres
Potential of primary soil to be flooded.
| NA | Not Applicable |
| FREQUENTLY | Frequently Flooded |
| NOT | Not Flooded |
| OCCASIONALLY |
| RARELY |
Potential of secondary soil, if any to be flooded.
| NA | Not Applicable |
| FREQUENTLY | Frequently Flooded |
| NOT | Not Flooded |
| OCCASIONALLY | Ocassionally Flooded |
| RARELY | Rarely Flooded |
Potential of primary soil to be ponded.
| NA | Not Applicable |
| NOT | Not Ponded |
| RARELY | Rarely Ponded |
Potential of secondary soil, if any to be ponded.
| NA | Not Applicable |
| NOT | Not Ponded |
| OCCASIONALLY | Occasionally Ponded |
Description of the soil slope
| NA |
| Text of Slope Range | See attribute "SLOPE" for slope range values |
Soil erosion condition
| 2 | Soil is eroded |
| 0 | Soil not classified as to be eroded. |
Feature geometry.
ESRI
| Very | Soil is Rocky |
| Not Class | Soil is not classified as rocky |