gSSURGO Updated

Farmers.gov sent this bulletin at 11/12/2024 07:57 PM EST

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gSSURGO Updated

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service manages the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) that contains information about soil collected by the National Cooperative Soil Survey over the course of a century. Gridded SSURGO (gSSURGO) is similar to the standard SSURGO Database product but includes a raster map layer for the soils spatial data and is delivered in the format of an Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI®) file geodatabase. 

As of October 24, 2024, all gSSURGO databases have been updated with the most current SSURGO information. The databases can be downloaded for all states and island territories of the United States. Additionally, a single, large database is available for the conterminous United States (CONUS). Click on the links in the preceding sentences to download the data as zip files.

The gSSURGO databases are designed to deliver SSURGO data over large geographic areas in an ESRI File Geodatabase format. They include all SSURGO tabular and spatial data. The spatial soil map is delivered as both a vector polygon layer and a raster. You can read more about gSSURGO and learn how to work with the databases on the gSSURGO web page.

A custom set of ArcTools designed to aggregate gSSURGO soils information and produce thematic maps is also available. You can read about and download the tools in the SSURGO/gSSURGO ArcTools section of the gSSURGO web page. While there are many tools in this toolbox, most customers are interested in using the “Create Soil Map” tool. This tool is designed to produce the same thematic maps of aggregated soil data as Web Soil Survey and Soil Data Viewer.

 

gSSURGO Update

The Soil Data Development ArcGIS toolbox showing the Create a Soil Map tool useful for working with the gSSURGO database.

Currently, these custom ArcTools only work in ArcMap, but in the next few months, an updated version for ArcGIS Pro will be available. A prototype version for ArcGIS Pro with limited functionality can be found at the github website (https://github.com/ncss-tech/SDDT-ArcGIS-Pro/tree/main).

Please contact the Soils Hotline for assistance with accessing and working with gSSURGO.