The Nitty Gritty on Soils Data

This lecture traces the development of soil survey in the United States and the evolution of soil science as a predictive framework. It focuses on how soil maps are built from field observations and landscape relationships, and how that knowledge is encoded within the SSURGO database. Key elements of SSURGO structure are covered, including map units, components, horizons, and interpretive properties. The lecture also highlights core assumptions, limitations, and sources of bias in conventional soil survey, and introduces tools used to access, interpret, and apply these data.