Area- and Depth-Weighted Averages of Selected SSURGO Variables for the Conterminous United States and District of Columbia

Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
This digital data release consists of seven national data files of area- and depth-weighted averages of select soil attributes for every available county in the conterminous United States and the District of Columbia as of March 2014. The files are derived from Natural Resources Conservations Service s (NRCS) Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO). The data files can be linked to the raster datasets of soil mapping unit identifiers (MUKEY) available through the NRCS s Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) database (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/geo/?cid=nrcs142p2_053628). The associated files, named DRAINAGECLASS, HYDRATING, HYDGRP, HYDRICCONDITION, LAYER, TEXT, and WTDEP are area- and depth-weighted average values for selected soil characteristics from the SSURGO database for the conterminous United States and the District of Columbia. The SSURGO tables were acquired from the NRCS on March 5, 2014. The soil characteristics in the DRAINAGE table are drainage class (DRNCLASS), which identifies the natural drainage conditions of the soil and refers to the frequency and duration of wet periods. The soil characteristics in the HYDRATING table are hydric rating (HYDRATE), a yes/no field that indicates whether or not a map unit component is classified as a "hydric soil". The soil characteristics in the HYDGRP table are the percentages for each hydrologic group per MUKEY. The soil characteristics in the HYDRICCONDITION table are hydric condition (HYDCON), which describes the natural condition of the soil component. The soil characteristics in the LAYER table are available water capacity (AVG_AWC), bulk density (AVG_BD), saturated hydraulic conductivity (AVG_KSAT), vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity (AVG_KV), soil erodibility factor (AVG_KFACT), porosity (AVG_POR), field capacity (AVG_FC), the soil fraction passing a number 4 sieve (AVG_NO4), the soil fraction passing a number 10 sieve (AVG_NO10), the soil fraction passing a number 200 sieve (AVG_NO200), and organic matter (AVG_OM). The soil characteristics in the TEXT table are percent sand, silt, and clay (AVG_SAND, AVG_SILT, and AVG_CLAY). The soil characteristics in the WTDEP table are the annual minimum water table depth (WTDEP_MIN), available water storage in the 0-25 cm soil horizon (AWS025), the minimum water table depth for the months April, May and June (WTDEPAMJ), the available water storage in the first 25 centimeters of the soil horizon (AWS25), the dominant drainage class (DRCLSD), the wettest drainage class (DRCLSWET), and the hydric classification (HYDCLASS), which is an indication of the proportion of the map unit, expressed as a class, that is "hydric", based on the hydric classification of a given MUKEY. (See Entity_Description for more detail). The tables were created with a set of arc macro language (aml) and awk (awk was created at Bell Labsin the 1970s and its name is derived from the first letters of the last namesof its authors Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan) scripts. Send an email to mewieczo@usgs.gov to obtain copies of the computer code (See Process_Description.) The methods used are outlined in NRCS's "SSURGO Data Packaging and Use" (NRCS, 2011). The tables can be related or joined to the gSSURGO rasters of MUKEYs by the item 'MUKEY.' Joining or relating the tables to a MUKEY grid allows the creation of grids of area- and depth-weighted soil characteristics. A 90-meter raster of MUKEYs is provided which can be used to produce rasters of soil attributes. More detailed resolution rasters are available through NRCS via the link above.
Citation
Title Area- and Depth-Weighted Averages of Selected SSURGO Variables for the Conterminous United States and District of Columbia
Publication Date  Date   2014-07-10
Publication Date  Date   2014-03-05
Publication Date  Date   2014-07-10
File Modification Date  Date   2014-12-31 06:01:39
Topic Category:  geoscientificInformation
Keywords:
Theme Keywords
environment
geoscientific Information
inlandWaters
Soils
SSURGO
percent clay
percent sand
percent silt
average water capacity
organic material
saturated hydraulic conductivity
ksat
vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity
bulk density
hydrologic groups
soil erodibility factor
kfact
porosity
drainage class
hydric condition
hydric rating
annual minimum water table depth
minimum water table depth for the months April, May and June
available water storage in the first 25 centimeters of the soil horizon
dominant drainage class
wettest drainage class
thesaurus name >
Title None
revision  Date   2015-07-19
Theme Keywords
environment
geoscientificInformation
inlandWaters
thesaurus name >
Title ISO 19115 Topic Categories
revision  Date   2015-07-19
Place Keywords
United States
Alaska
Hawaii
Puerto Rico
thesaurus name >
Title None
revision  Date   2015-07-19
Theme keywords (theme):
Survey
thesaurus name >
Title Activity > Observation
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Averaging
thesaurus name >
Title Method > Information Processing
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Letter
thesaurus name >
Title Material > Material (Other)
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Frequency
Capacity
Density
Hydraulic Conductivity
Conductivity
Porosity
thesaurus name >
Title Property > Measure
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Soil
Water
Clay
Silt
Organic Material
thesaurus name >
Title Material > Environmental Material
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Geography
Hydrology
thesaurus name >
Title Science Domain > Earth Science
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Sand
thesaurus name >
Title Material > Rock Material
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
CLASS
thesaurus name >
Title Equipment > Instrument
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
COMPUTERS
thesaurus name >
Title Equipment > platform
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Water
thesaurus name >
Title Material > Chemical
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
KSAT
thesaurus name >
Title Organization > Commercial Organization
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
Theme keywords (theme):
Dataset
thesaurus name >
Title Resource Type > Data Set
publication  Date   2017-01-17
other Citation Details  Cinergi keyword enhanced at Tue Jan 17 12:38:13 UTC 2017
purpose:
The data were derived for use in studies requiring estimates of soil characteristics. The georeferenced soil characteristics were intended to be averaged over large areas, such as over a river basin, and used for (1) watershed simulation models that require spatially lumped estimates of soil hydraulic parameters, and (2) as explanatory variables in regional and national water-quality assessment studies.
Resource language:  eng
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -129.4956
eastBoundLongitude  -64.4393
northBoundLatitude  48.6336
southBoundLatitude  21.8079
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Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
organisation Name  U.S. Geological Survey
position Name Ask USGS - - Water Webserver Team
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 1-888-275-8487 (1-888-ASK-USGS)
Address
Digital Transfer Options
Linkage for online resource
name ScienceBase Item Summary Page
URL: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5488c095e4b02acb4f0c92d2
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name DRAINAGECLASSS.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/DrainageClass.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name HydGrp.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/HydGrp.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name Hydrating.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/Hydrating.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name HydricCondition.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/HydricCondition.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name Layer.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/Layer.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name Text.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/Text.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name WtDep.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/WtDep.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name MUKEY90m.zip
URL: http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/MUKEY90m.zip
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description ScienceBase WebLink
target application profile  Web Browser
Linkage for online resource
name Download Attached Files
URL: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/file/get/5488c095e4b02acb4f0c92d2
protocol WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function information
Description Download Link
target application profile  Web Browser

Metadata data stamp:  2015-04-30T19:16:52Z
Metadata Constraints
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
none
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  USGS-WRD MDWSC
position Name Geographer
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 443-498-5550
Fax 443-498-5510
Address
5522 Research Park Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21228 Country US
electronic Mail Address mewieczo@usgs.gov
Metadata contact - metadataContact
organisation Name  US Geological Survey
position Name Ask USGS -- Water Webserver Team
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 1-888-275-8487 (1-888-ASK-USGS)
Address
Metadata contact - originator
organisation Name  Michael E. Wieczorek, USGS-WRD MDWSC, Geographer
Contact information
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO19115
standard version:  1.0
Metadata record identifier:  5488c095e4b02acb4f0c92d2
URI for dataset described: > https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5488c095e4b02acb4f0c92d2

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)