Fact Sheets And Publications

2.    The WSS starts on the “Area of Interest (AOI)” tab (Figure 2). There are several options for selecting an AOI using the quick navigation header (located in the left hand toolbar).

• Follow these steps to retrieve information on all soils in a county:

            a.    click on “Soil Survey Area”,

            b.    select “Delaware” and then your county, and

            c.    click “Set AOI”.

• Follow these steps to set the AOI for a specific address:

                a.    Type the address under the “Address” tab.

                b.    Once the address is located on the map, you can zoom in or out using the tools on the map view (magnifying glasses with + or -) and pan by using the hand tool to get to the correct land parcel.

                c.    Once you have the map location correct, you can select the desired area using the AOI tools in the map (circled in red) (Figure 4). There are two AOI selection tools, one for rectangular shaped (left) and one for customized shapes (right).

3.    Once an AOI is selected, click on the “Soil Map” tab to open the soil map view (Figure 5). The orange outlines on the map depict the individual soil map unit boundaries. Each map unit is assigned a map unit symbol, which is defined in the map unit legend (located on the left). The legend shows the map unit name (based on the predominant soil series), the acres of that map unit in the AOI, and the percentage of the AOI covered by that map unit.

4.    More information about the soil map units within the AOI is available under the “Soil Data Explorer” tab. There are many types of data available via the “Soil Data Explorer” tab.

Here are some examples of the data you can obtain:

Soil Map Unit Descriptions provide more detailed information about the soil series included in a soil map unit (Figure 6).

• Follow these steps for information on the dominant and minor soil series:

                a.    select the “Soil Reports” tab,

                b.    click to expand AOI Inventory,

                c.    choose “Map Unit Descriptions” from the menu on the left, and

                d.    click on “View Soil Report”.

Depth to Water Table provides an estimation of the depth below ground surface to the seasonal high water table (Figure 7).

• Follow these steps to access “Depth to Water Table”:

                a.    select the “Soil Properties” tab,

                b.    choose “Water Features” on the left menu,

                c.    click “Depth to Water Table”, and

                d.    choose “View Rating”.

Depth to Water Table provides an estimation of the depth below ground surface to the seasonal high water table (Figure 7).

• Follow these steps to access “Depth to Water Table”:

                a.    select the “Soil Properties” tab,

                b.    choose “Water Features” on the left menu,

                c.    click “Depth to Water Table”, and

                d.    choose “View Rating”.

5.    Export reports by clicking on “Add to Shopping Cart” in the upper right corner as you select data. You can then navigate to the “Shopping Cart” tab.

Summary

These preliminary instructions will help consultants and farmers start using the Web Soil Survey to retrieve information from the NRCS SSURGO databases. More comprehensive instructions for using the WSS are available via the WSS website.

Author(s):

A.L. Shober and R.O. Rothweiler
Department of Plant and Soil Sciences
University of Delaware

Original Publication Date: April 2016

References:

Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Web Soil Survey. Available online at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/. Accessed [1 April 2016].