United States General Soil Map (STATSGO2)

The Digital General Soil Map of the United States or STATSGO2 is a broad-based inventory of soils and non-soil areas that occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped of 1:250,000 in the continental U.S., Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands and 1:1,000,000 in Alaska. The level of mapping is designed for broad planning and management uses covering state, regional, and multi-state areas. The U.S. General Soil Map is comprised of general soil association units and is maintained and distributed as a spatial and tabular dataset.

The U.S. General Soil Map was developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey and supersedes the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) dataset.

The dataset was created by generalizing more detailed soil survey maps. Where more detailed soil survey maps were not available, data on geology, topography, vegetation, and climate were assembled and related to Land Remote Sensing Satellite (LANDSAT) images. Soils of similar areas were studied, and the probable classification and extent of the soils were determined.

Map unit composition was determined by transecting or sampling areas on the more detailed maps and then statistically expanding the data to characterize the whole map unit.

The dataset consists of georeferenced, vector and tabular data. The map data were collected in 1- by 2-degree topographic quadrangle units and merged into a seamless national dataset. The dataset is distributed in state, territorial, and national extents. The spatial units are linked to attributes in the tabular data, which give the proportionate extent of the component soils and their properties.

The tabular data contains estimates of physical and chemical soil properties, soil interpretations, and static and dynamic metadata. Most of the tabular data exists in the database as a range of values for soil properties. The values depict the range for the geographic extent of the map unit. For most properties, the data include high, low, and representative values.

• Resource Title: SSURGO Metadata - Tables and Columns Report.

  File Name: SSURGOMetadata-_Tables_and_Columns.pdf

  Resource Description: This report contains a complete listing of all columns in each database table. Please see SSURGO Metadata - Table Column Descriptions Report for more detailed descriptions of each column.




• Resource Title: SSURGO Metadata - Table Column Descriptions Report.

  File Name: SSURGOMetadata-_Table_Column_Descriptions.pdf

  Resource Description: This report contains the descriptions of all columns in each database table. Please see SSURGO Metadata - Tables and Columns Report for a complete listing of all columns in each database table.