NRCS has numerous websites and mobile applications that are rich in data on soils, water, air, energy, and other natural resources. View the list on the right for links to those resources, and see more in-depth information on this page about these websites and apps.
For assistance with any of these NRCS websites, please fill out our feedback form, and an NRCS expert with that site will assist you.
Conservation Client Gateway
Conservation Client Gateway is a USDA public website that allows individual landowners and land users the secure ability to request conservation technical and financial assistance from NRCS.
Description: The SoilWeb app provides GPS based, real-time access to USDA-NRCS soil survey data, formatted for mobile devices. This application retrieves graphical summaries of soil types associated with the user's current geographic location. Images are linked to detailed information on the named soils. The app is available for iPhone and Android users, and Google Maps and Google Earth also interface with this application. This application was developed in a partnership between UC Davis California and NRCS.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS & UC Davis California
Title: Web Soil Survey
Description: Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties anticipates having 100 percent in the near future.
Description: Soil Data Access is the name of a suite of web services and applications that meet requirements for requesting and delivering soil survey spatial and tabular data that are not being met by the current Soil Data Mart and Geospatial Data Gateway websites. These requirements include:
Provide a way to request data for an ad hoc area of interest of any size.
Provide a way to obtain data in real-time.
Provide a way to request selected tabular attributes.
Provide a way to return tabular data where the organization of that data doesn’t have to mirror that of the underlying source database.
Provide a way to bundle results by request, rather than by survey area.
Title: Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA) Data Viewer
Description: The Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA) authorizes USDA to report on the condition of natural resources, and to analyze conservation programs and opportunities. This site supports the RCA by providing data from a variety of sources, including data on the status and trends of natural resources, conservation efforts (funding and conservation practices applied), and the agricultural sector.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS/ Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act
Water & Climate maps, data, & mobile apps
Title: DamWatch
Description: Real-time monitoring of rainfall, snowmelt, stream flow and seismic events that could pose potential threats to dam safety. DamWatch will help watershed project sponsors monitor and manage dams that were built with assistance from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
Description: The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates, and maintains an extensive, automated system to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States called SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry). The system evolved from NRCS's Congressional mandate in the mid-1930's "to measure snowpack in the mountains of the West and forecast the water supply." NRCS field staff collects and analyzes data on depth and water equivalent of the snowpack at more than 1,200 mountain sites and estimate annual water availability, spring runoff, and summer stream flows. Individuals, organizations, and state and Federal agencies use these forecasts for decisions relating to agricultural production, fish and wildlife management, municipal and industrial water supply, urban development, flood control, recreation power generation, and water quality management. The National Weather Service includes the forecasts in their river forecasting function.
Title: NRCS National Water & Climate Center Climate Reports
Description: Climate products include information and data for Wetlands Determination, Temperature and Precipitation Summaries, Frost Free Days, and Growing Seasons. PRISM data and information, Narratives and Tables for Soil Survey Regions of the United States, and Weather Generator Technology model (GEM) information can also be found in this section.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS/Water & Climate Center
Title: NRCS National Water & Climate Center GIS Products
Description: The National Water and Climate Center offers a suite of maps displaying variables such as snow water equivalent, snow depth, snow density, precipitation and temperature. Maps are generated at a variety of scales for the western United States using SNOTEL, snow course, and ACIS data.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS/Water & Climate Center
Air/Air Quality maps, data, & mobile apps
Title: COMET-VR
Description: NRCS has a web tool for farmers and ranchers called COMET-VR that estimates soil carbon sequestration. Storing, or “sequestering,” carbon in soil as organic matter and in trees helps reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. COMET-VR was field tested by people in crop production, livestock grazing and conservation planning in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Wyoming.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS & Colorado State University
Title: National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool
Description: The National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool (NAQSAT) provides assistance to livestock and poultry producers in determining where there are opportunities to make changes on their operations that will result in reduced air emissions. NAQSAT is based on the most accurate, credible data currently available regarding mitigation strategies for air emissions of ammonia, methane, volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, particulates, and odor.
Contributing Agency/Agencies, Programs: NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, C.E. Meadows Endowment, Michigan State University, Colorado Livestock Association, Iowa Turkey Federation, Iowa Pork Producers, Iowa Pork Industry Center, Iowa State University Experiment Station, Michigan Milk Producers Association, Michigan Pork Producers Association, Michigan State University Extension, National Pork Board, University of California, Davis, University of Georgia Department of Poultry Science, University of Maryland Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, Nebraska Environmental Trust, Western United Dairymen, Colorado State University, Oregon State University, Penn State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska
Energy maps, data, & mobile apps
Title: Energy Estimator
Description:The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has developed four energy tools designed to increase energy awareness in agriculture and to help farmers and ranchers identify where they can reduce their energy costs. The results generated by these tools are estimates based on NRCS models and are illustrative of the magnitude of savings.
Description:The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.
