Ongoing soil survey work: what and why, data revisions. The future of soil survey: new technologies

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1 Ongoing soil survey work: what and why, data revisions The future of soil survey: new technologies Jacob Isleib, Soil Scientist MLRA Soil Survey Office Tolland, CT USDA-NRCS

2 Glaciated Soil Survey Region 12 (recently reorganized) Massachusetts is covered by Soil Survey Offices: 12-TOL Tolland CT 12-STJ St. Johnsbury VT 12-DFX Dover-Foxcroft ME

3 Soil Science Division National Priorities Strengthen National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) partnerships Technical soil services (to enhance and support soil health initiatives, conservation planning, and program delivery) Increase the integration of soil science with USDA and NRCS climate change initiatives Accelerate the Soil Survey Data Join Recorrelation (SDJR) initiative Ecological Site Inventory Accelerate initial soil inventory (on all lands, including Federal lands )

4 Ongoing soil survey work Technical Soil Services Requests within Massachusetts managed by Al Averill Soil Survey Office staff can be involved on an as-needed basis

Types of Technical Soil Services Ongoing soil survey work Application of ecological site

Develop or validate soil survey interpretations On-site investigation, conservation practice

Soil health sampling, interpretation On-site and off-site investigations (wetland/hel

5 Types of Technical Soil Services Ongoing soil survey work Application of ecological site information Create custom maps, reports, data files, etc. Develop or validate soil survey interpretations On-site investigation, conservation practice design or installation On-site investigation, geophysical (Ground Penetrating Radar, EMI) Soil health sampling, interpretation On-site and off-site investigations (wetland/hel determinations) Provide training to NRCS and partners Soil judging contests, envirothons, etc. Teaching, lectures, presentation, displays, posters

6 Ecological Site Inventory Ongoing soil survey work Relatively new in eastern US; ongoing in western range and forest areas ecological site (ecosite)--- a conceptual landscape division defined by recurring soil, landform, geological, and climate characteristics. An ecosite produces distinctive kinds, amounts, and proportions of vegetation and responds similarly to management actions and natural disturbances. Not mapping current vegetation, but an abiotic site with potential vegetation described

7 Ongoing soil survey work Soil Map Canton and Charlton soils, 3 to 8 percent slopes, very stony Westbrook mucky peat, low salt Pawcatuck mucky peat, 0 to 2 percent slopes, very frequently flooded Fort Neck mucky silt loam, 0 to 1 meter water depth

8 Ongoing soil survey work Deep Rocky Till High Tidal Marsh Subaqueous Flat Low Tidal Marsh

Ongoing soil survey work Current ES work--- We are in the early stages of this inventory effort Developing provisional ecological site concepts for all soils in our office area Identifying potential

9 Ongoing soil survey work Current ES work--- We are in the early stages of this inventory effort Developing provisional ecological site concepts for all soils in our office area Identifying potential partnerships for focusing work Potential Ecological Site Description in Massachusetts: NPS Cape Cod National Seashore park managers familiar and interested in using ecological site descriptions for management & restoration Extensive dunelands, tidal marsh, sandy glaciofluvial and till sites Office contact for ecological site inventory: Michael Margo, Ecological Site Specialist

times; often county/state boundaries Striving for truly seamless

10 Soil Data Join Recorrelation Initiative (SDJR) Ongoing soil survey work Data Joins occur along boundaries between areas surveyed at different times; often county/state boundaries Striving for truly seamless product: associated data is up-to-date and flows across human contrived boundaries

11 What are the issues? Ongoing soil survey work

12 What are the issues? Ongoing soil survey work

13 Ongoing soil survey work What are the issues? Soil survey vintages created a variety of map unit concepts K factor is one interpretation dependent on texture, which is dependent on map unit concept

14 What are the issues? Ongoing soil survey work The map unit name may flow across political boundaries but the components populated in NASIS may not match.

Ongoing soil survey work Conceptual result Aggregate multiple instances of same-concept map units into a single instance, a MLRA map unit Eliminate erroneous copies of same map unit with

15 Ongoing soil survey work Conceptual result Aggregate multiple instances of same-concept map units into a single instance, a MLRA map unit Eliminate erroneous copies of same map unit with differing data Major Land Resource Areas - geographically associated land resource units; unique areas defined by their physiography, geology, climate, water, soils, biological resources, and land use.

16 Ongoing soil survey work List of soil components that have been harmonized including FY15: Agawam Catden Freetown Hinckley Ipswich Matunuck Merrimac Montauk Muskego Natchaug Ninigret Occum Pawcatuck Paxton Pinnebog Ridgebury Sandyhook Scarboro Swansea Timakwa Walpole Wawayanda Westbrook Windsor Woodbridge Bold text denotes benchmark soil *FY15 data updates not yet available; expected mid-oct 2015

17 Notable Data Revisions T, K, HSG may change Moderately well drained soils with HSG c may change to c/d based on new national calculation and data updates Farmland Class (Prime farmland, etc.) will *not* change Forestry productivity, crop yield etc. Parent material standardization Slope ranges, surface texture phase changes 0-1% vs 0-2% slopes Freetown muck vs Freetown mucky peat Soil component recorrelation So far only occurring in freshwater histosols Modifications to inclusions (minor comp s) Ongoing soil survey work previous component new component Carlisle Catden Adrian Timakwa Palms Natchaug New data uploaded annually (around mid-october) Sign up for notifications using GovDelivery (link on last slide)

18 Ongoing soil survey work SDJR - Project Example Before After

19 The future of soil survey: New Technologies & Digital Soil Mapping

20 Initial soil survey nearing completion in Northeast Is complete in Southern New England Future of soil survey

Future of soil survey Initial Soil Survey = first

inaccuracies and inconsistencies require attention

data MA CT RI RI Bing LiDAR Aerial Linework

21 Future of soil survey Initial Soil Survey = first version of seamless soil inventory Spatial data inaccuracies and inconsistencies require attention Increasingly obvious with recent, hi-res basemap data MA CT RI RI Bing LiDAR Aerial Linework inaccuracy Inconsistencies in polygon density between mappers/surveys

22 Future of soil survey The majority of initial soil survey was made using:

23 We have better environmental data now Future of soil survey Hi-res remote sensed data has revolutionized our ability to model soil-landscape relationships New types of data and new information Better data: high resolution and/or accuracy

24 Status of LiDAR data availability approaching complete coverage of southern New England Future of soil survey

25 Future of soil survey

Knowledge Discoverer Orleans County, VT Case

of soil survey Original SSURGO polygon of

Inference Engine (ArcSIE) One typical curve

edited according to new knowledge/better

26 Knowledge Discoverer Orleans County, VT Case Study Update Lodgment Till map units Future of soil survey Original SSURGO polygon of Dixfield sandy loam, 8-15 percent slope Soil Inference Engine (ArcSIE) One typical curve was selected to represent each map unit, and edited according to new knowledge/better data (in this case LiDAR derivatives) Updated map

27 Future of soil survey

Future of soil survey Small or narrow areas of dissimilar soils are

delineated (Vector/polygon minimum sizes are limited by cartographic

County Raster Soil Survey classes (color) overlain by SSURGO polygons (white

28 Future of soil survey Small or narrow areas of dissimilar soils are delineated in raster map In vector map they are not large enough to be delineated (Vector/polygon minimum sizes are limited by cartographic standards) considered map unit inclusions only captured conceptually Essex County Raster Soil Survey classes (color) overlain by SSURGO polygons (white lines with black symbols). The image represents an area that is approximately 1.8 kilometers wide.

29 Future of soil survey Current USDA-NRCS Published Soil Survey created using Digital Soil Mapping techniques In Northeast/Northern Midwest Essex Co. Vermont Orleans Co. Vermont (update project) Boundary Waters Canoe Area (MN)

30 How this could affect Massachusetts--- Future of soil survey Spatial edits are coming soon Current period of USDA Soil Survey = offices, staff & areas of responsibility incompatible with remapping using traditional survey method New method f(current Soil Scientists + published soil surveys) Computers will be used for inference May require complete migration to Raster format for future versions containing improvements Spatial edits are currently made to vector data Current gssurgo raster is just a conversion of vector product

31 Future of soil survey Probable Focus Areas in MA Order 3 Mapping including Vague map units Charlton-Paxton complexes, etc

32 Future of soil survey On-going Questions Will users accept raster data format? New mapping techniques may necessitate migration to raster format Often seen as trade-off--- users are used to vector (polygon) linework or

33 Future of soil survey Strengthening the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) Users play a strong role in directing future soil survey project work by providing feedback USDA is very interested in--- What you are using soil surveys for? What s working/what s not What the soil survey needs-- Inaccurate mapping areas (spatial inaccuracies) Data quality issues (tabular data issues) New visions of future soil survey What would you like to see in future versions/products SDJR Updates Issues related to data revisions

34 Contacts: Tolland CT Soil Survey Office Staff: Donald Parizek, Soil Survey Office Leader Jacob Isleib, Soil Scientist Marissa Theve, Soil Scientist Michael Margo, Ecological Site Specialist User survey: Soil Survey-related Announcements: Sign up for national and/or Massachusetts-specific announcements

35 Why Raster? Raster data is a simpler data model that allows for mathematical calculation, faster processing, and display. Future of soil survey

12- TOL MLRA Soil Survey Area Approximately 15,000,000 Acres

!@ 12- TOL MLRA Soil Survey Area Approximately 15,000,000 Acres Office Location: Tolland, Connecticut Staff: Donald Parizek Acting Soil Survey Office Party Leader Jacob Isleib Soil Scientist Marissa Theve