Monday, 7 November 2005
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Geographic Information System (Gis) Applications in Alabama Soil Survey.

Stephon Thomas, Zamir Libohova, Jerome Langlinais, Joe Gardinski, Chris Ford, Rick Zellmer, and Charles Love. USDA-NRCS, 3381 Skyway Drive/P.O.Box 311, Auburn, AL 36830

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Soil Survey Program in Alabama is rapidly moving towards digital products. The Program is utilizing new digital technologies including Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), Remote Sensing, etc. The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the use of digital technology in (i) initial and updating soil survey and (ii) digital soil survey publications. In the initial and update soil surveys, ArcMap, ArcView, OrthoMapper, and 3D mapper software are being used to combine information from topographic maps on 1:24.000 scale, aerial photographs, infrared aerial photographs, geological maps, plat books, etc. Through digital transformations, information is combined to generate various thematic maps used during field soil mapping. Maps combining topographic lines, aerial photograph, and shaded relief from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) help soil scientists to initially identify slopes (gradients and shapes), elevation, relief, and landscapes used for delineating and establishing map units. Based on aerial photographs and GPS, map unit delineations are further adjusted in the field to reflect the actual landscape positions. Soil maps from the existing soil survey are initially scanned to create “.tiff” files and orthorectified or georeferenced using ArcMap and Orthomapper. Map unit delineations are transferred to a digital format using ArcGIS digitizing tools, to create polygon coverages and shape files with attributes for map unit names, acres, and other soil properties. The new digital soil maps are being used as a basis for producing digital Soil Surveys in Alabama. By June 2005, 37 soil surveys will be published on-line, and by 2007 all published soil surveys will be in a spatial and tabular digital format. Of the 67 Alabama counties about 60% are available in digital format from the Soil Datamart (http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov). Twenty soil surveys are available on-line as “.pdf” files from the Alabama NRCS homepage (http://www.mo15.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soilsurvey.html)

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