Description: The "Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) Database State-tile Package" product is derived from the Soil Survey Geographic (2.2) Database dated October 2023. The gSSURGO data were prepared by merging SSURGO digital vector map and tabular data into State-wide extents, and adding a State-wide gridded map layer derived from the vector, plus a new value added look up (valu) table that contains “ready to map attributes”.SSURGO is generally the most detailed level of soil geographic data developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) in accordance with NCSS mapping standards. The tabular data represent the soil attributes and are derived from properties and characteristics stored in the National Soil Information System (NASIS). The gSSURGO data were prepared by merging traditional SSURGO digital vector map and tabular data into State-wide extents, and adding a State-wide gridded map layer derived from the vector, plus a new value added look up (valu) table containing "ready to map” attributes. The gridded map layer is offered in an ArcGIS™ 10.0 file geodatabase raster format.The raster and vector map data have a State-wide extent. The raster map data have a 10 meter cell size that approximates the vector polygons in an Albers Equal Area projection. Each cell (and polygon) is linked to a map unit identifier called the map unit key (MUKEY). A unique map unit key is used to link raster cells and polygons to attribute tables, including the new value added look up (valu) table that contains additional derived data.
Copyright Text: Soil Survey Staff. Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) Database for North Dakota. United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. Available online at http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/. 2023-10 (FY2024 official release).
*North Dakota State Geospatial Committee Note*
The NRCS disperses the SSURGO spatial data with only a couple
attributes included by default such as MapUnit Symbol and MapUnit
Key. Many additional data tables are available to join to the spatial
data based on these attributes, however due to the complexity of the
table information, users will probably want to join the tables based
on their own decision making processes and needs for the data. In
short, it would be impossible for us to create an attribute table that
would satisfy all needs. The problem of cryptic MapUnit Symbol
(MUSym) and MapUnit Key (MUKey) attributes has been somewhat
alleviated by joining the MapUnit and Component Tables in order to provide map
unit names (that everyone should be able to understand) for both the
casual and expert soils data user, as well as some of the most requested
data fields.
Please notify us first with problems so we
can determine if anything we did to the data in these processes
might be causing the problem.
Rod Bassler, SGC Soils Data Steward
GIS Coordinator
North Dakota Dept of Water Resources
1200 Memorial Hwy
Bismarck, ND 58504
701-328-4998
rbassler@nd.gov