USDA Announces Web Soil Survey
August 19, 2005
August 19, 2005 -- Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns this week announced the launch of a U.S. Department of Agriculture Web Soil Survey site that will provide secure public access to the national soils information system. This site is a simple yet powerful way to access and analyze soil data that contributes to every aspect of public- and private-land use and development.
When viewers visit the soil web site, they are asked to define a geographic area of interest by selecting a state and country or just by highlighting an area or areas. Once a location has been defined and projected on the screen, the viewer has the choice to print the map and related information, save it to their hard drive, or download the data for use in a geographic information system.
The visitor can also explore the designated location for specific soils data giving the viewer important information on soil suitability in relationship to usage.
Prior to the launch of this Web site, all soil-survey maps were printed and bound into soil survey books. This familiar soil-survey publication will be phased out slowly and replaced with the use of this site.
To view the Web site, go to: http://soils.usda.gov/survey.
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