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Soil Survey Programs
The National
Cooperative Soil Survey Program (NCSS) is a partnership led by NRCS of
Federal land management agencies, state agricultural experiment stations and
state and local units of government that provide soil survey information
necessary for understanding, managing, conserving and sustaining the nation's
limited soil resources.
Soil surveys provide an orderly, on-the-ground, scientific inventory of soil
resources that includes maps showing the locations and extent of soils, data
about the physical and chemical properties of those soils, and information
derived from that data about potentialities and problems of use on each kind of
soil in sufficient detail to meet all reasonable needs for farmers, agricultural
technicians, community planners, engineers, and scientists in planning and
transferring the findings of research and experience to specific land areas.
Soil surveys provide the basic
information needed to manage soil sustainably. They also provide information
needed to protect water quality, wetlands, and wildlife habitat. Soil surveys
are the basis for predicting the behavior of a soil under alternative uses, its
potential erosion hazard, potential for ground water contamination, suitability
and productivity for cultivated crops, trees, and grasses. Soil surveys are
important to planners, engineers, zoning commissions, tax commissioners,
homeowners, developers, as well as agricultural producers. Soil surveys also
provide a basis to help predict the effect of global climate change on worldwide
agricultural production and other land-dependent processes. The
NRCS
Soil Survey Division through its World
Soil Resources Staff helps gather and interpret soil information for global
use.
NRCS provides the soil
surveys for the privately owned lands of the nation and, through its
National
Soil Survey Center, provides scientific expertise to enable the NCSS to
develop and maintain a uniform system for mapping and assessing soil resources
so that soil information from different locations can be shared, regardless of
which agency collects it. NRCS provides most of the training in soil survey to
Federal agencies and assists other Federal agencies with their soil inventories
on a reimbursable basis. NRCS is also responsible for developing the standards
and mechanisms for providing
digital soil information
for the national spatial data infrastructure required by Executive Order 12906.
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