The ambitious task of inventorying all the soils of the United States began more than 100 years ago. Many tools have been developed over the years that help the field soil scientist collect both tabular and spatial data. The National Soil Information System (NASIS), a centralized relational computer database, was developed using GIS to store, evaluate, interpret, and report soil information for users of soil surveys. Nevertheless, detailed soil profile descriptions (also known as pedon descriptions) had until recently been collected in the field on paper forms, and after the completion of a soil survey area, these forms were filed; stored; and, sadly, often lost or inadvertently destroyed. Even if the locations of these descriptions were known, access to this data had been limited or inconvenient to access.
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GIS Weekly Magazine
Susan Smith
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Look for the next issue of GIS Weekly Magazine on May 28, 2012.
Each GISWeekly Review delivers to its readers news concerning the latest developments in the GIS industry, along with a selection of other articles that we feel you might find interesting. |
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