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 Who
do Soil Surveys Benefit
Who benefits from Soil Surveys? We all do! When
we better understand the soil under our feet, beneath our homes,
around our schools and developments and supporting our communities,
we have a better chance of not destroying an essential natural
resource.
As more people realize that conservation is in
our own hands, requests for soil survey information is increasing.
Urban planners,
state and local governments and private citizens are using
the
soil survey information to determine if land is suitable for
building, farming, ranching, grazing, commercial developments
and many engineering and conservation applications.
Soil Survey
information helps:
- Homeowners – can determine
the type of soil and land usage found on their
existing site or a prospective new site. This allows
them to make good building decisions and provides
information for growing trees and plants.
- Developers – can
determine whether or not the soil in a proposed
development area is adaptable for their intended
use.
- Community
planners – use soil surveys to help
them understand Urban soils that are found in
watersheds
that provide drinking water, food, waste utilization,
and natural resources to communities. Understanding
Urban soils helps cities with park areas, recreation
areas, community gardens, green belts, lawns,
septic absorption fields, sediment basins and
other uses.
- Farmers – can
use soil information to identify important farmlands,
estimate potential crop production and take early precautions
against erodable land areas
- Ranchers – can
better manage pasture land and rangeland for better forage
production.
- Teachers and
educators – provides yet another educational
resource for them to draw upon. With more pertinent
soil information educators can better teach about the
conservation of our natural resources.
- Engineers – use
soil surveys to determine the suitability and limitations
of soils for pipelines, buildings, landfills/lagoons,
recreation areas and many other uses.
- Realtors – can
use soil information to determine soil related hazards
or limitations that affect home sites. Potential problems
and dangers can be identified before a new home owner
closes the deal. Also useful for land evaluations and
appraisal processes.
- Foresters – can
use soil surveys to look at the soil properties they
are most concerned with such as; slope, wetness, the
amount of rock fragments/gravels in the soil and at what
depth, if at all, root restricting layers occur. The
more information forest managers have about their soils,
the better they will be able to plan and manage their
forests for the greatest economical and environmental
benefit.
- Others – use
soil information to help solve environmental problems
such as blowing dust, soil erosion by water and wind,
site evaluation and remediation and maintaining/improving
water quality.
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| Updated Soil Survey Provides Tools and Data
for: |
- Aquifer protection
- Identification of geo-land hazard
areas
- Accurate hydric soils identification
- Updateable soils databases
- Revised soil and water interpretations
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- Resource management
- Custom interpretations designed for users
- Urban growth management
- New Orthophoto map base
- New information display systems (GIS/CD-ROM)
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