USDA has re-designed its Soil Tools web page, to now serve as a one-stop source for new, leading-edge tools and technologies to help farmers, ranchers, and other land users understand, evaluate and conserve soils.
Managed by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Tools web page offers single-site access to soil data and maps, soil databases, digital soil applications, climate data, descriptions of soils, ecological sites, statistical packages and soil-property calculators. The USDA maps and information are free with no user ID or password required.
“Along with air, sunlight and water, soil is one of the four building blocks of life on earth,” said Dave Hoover, Director of the National Soil Survey Center. “Soil is tied, in some way, to everything we use as a society. This new web portal makes it easy to find and use soils data, and provides unique, interactive tools for all customers of soils information.”
Highlights include:
- Access to download up-to-date soil data and maps used for comparing soils over broad areas, make conservation planning and soil evaluation easier.
- Access to Web Soil Survey and other tools that provide the ability to search for soils maps and data by location.
- Access to soil apps that display and allow users to access data and view interactive maps.
- Access to calculators for soil texture and water budgeting.
The new resources are made available thanks to the joint effort of the National Cooperative Soil Survey partnership, which includes Federal and State agencies, universities, and professional societies, and exists to cooperatively investigate, inventory, document, classify, interpret, disseminate, and publish information about soils.