Section 1	Identification Information
Originator	Natural Resource Research Institute
Title	Lake Superior Basin Soils
Abstract	This coverage was constructed from two main data sources for the US and Canada. The Canadian information is compiled from the National Soil Database (NSDB) of Canada, and the US information is collected from the State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO) of the US. STATSGO: This data set is a digital general soil association map developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It consists of a broad based inventory of soils and nonsoil areas that occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped. The soil maps for STATSGO are compiled by generalizing more detailed soil survey maps. Where more detailed soil survey maps are not available, data on geology, topography, vegetation, and climate are assembled, together with Land Remote Sensing Satellite (LANDSAT) images. Soils of like areas are studied, and the probable classification and extent of the soils are determined. Map unit composition for a STATSGO map is determined by transecting or sampling areas on the more detailed maps and expanding the data statistically to characterize the whole map unit. This data set consists of georeferenced digital map data and computerized attribute data. The map data are collected in 1- by 2-degree topographic quadrangle units and merged and distributed as statewide coverages. The soil map units are linked to attributes in the Map Unit Interpretations Record relational data base which gives the proportionate extent of the component soils and their properties. Canada: As stated, the Canadian data was taken from the NSDB of Canada. For more information, contact NSDB http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html . Data was then clipped with the 50 km lake superior basin boundary, and split into county coverages for the US side. It was left whole for the canadian side.
Purpose	US: STATSGO depicts information about soil features on or near the surface of the Earth. These data are collected as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey.
Time Period of Content Date	1994
Currentness Reference	Publication of STATSGO data
Progress	Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency	As needed
Spatial Extent of Data	All states and provinces being part of a 50 km buffer of the Lake Superior Drainage Basin. This includes parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario, Canada.
Bounding Coordinates	-97.293 -81.564 49.255 41.573
Place Keywords	Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Canada, Lake Superior
Theme Keywords	Lake Superior Drainage Basin, soils, loess, silts, clays, drainage class
Theme Keyword Thesaurus	None
Access Constraints
Use Constraints	US: The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service should be acknowledged as the data source in products derived from these data. STATSGO was designed primarily for regional, multicounty, river basin, State, and multistate resource planning, management, and monitoring. STATSGO data are not detailed enough to make interpretations at a county level. This soil survey product is not designed for use as a primary regulatory tool in permitting or citing decisions, but may be used as a reference source. The use of these data is not restricted and may be interpreted by organizations, agencies, units of government, or others; however, they are responsible for its appropriate application. Federal, State, or local regulatory bodies are not to reassign to the Natural Resources Conservation Service any authority for the decisions that they make. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will not perform any evaluations of these maps for purposes related solely to state or local regulatory programs. When STATSGO data are overlayed with other data layers, such as land use data, caution must be used in generating statistics on the co-occurence of the land use data with the soil data. The composition of the STATSGO map unit can be characterized independently for the land use and for the soil component, but there are no data on their joint occurrence at a more detailed level. Analysis of the overlayed data should be on a map polygon basis. Additional political, watershed, or other boundaries may be intersected with the soil data. Although the composition of each political and watershed unit may be described in terms of the STATSGO map units, information is not available to assign the components to the boundary units with full accuracy. As with the land use categories, the analysis should be restricted to the classified components. The approximate minimum area delineated is 625 hectares (1,544 acres), which is represented on a 1:250,000-scale map by an area approximately 1 cm by 1 cm (0.4 inch by 0.4 inch). Linear delineations are not less than 0.5 cm (0.2 inch) in width. The number of delineations per 1:250,000 quadrangle typically is 100 to 200, but may range up to 400. Delineations depict the dominant soils making up the landscape. Other dissimilar soils, too small to be delineated, are present within a delineation. Digital enlargements of these maps to scales greater than at which they were originally mapped can cause misinterpretation of the data. If enlarged, maps do not show the small areas of contrasting soils that could have been shown at a larger scale. The depicted soil boundaries, interpretations, and analysis derived from them do not eliminate the need for onsite sampling, testing, and detailed study of specific sites for intensive uses. Thus, these data and their interpretations are intended for planning purposes only. Attribute data for some data elements may be incomplete or missing. Where data are unavailable, a mask should be used to exclude the area from analysis. Digital data files are periodically updated. Files are dated, and users are responsible for obtaining the latest version of the data.
Contact Person Information	Mark White, Research Fellow Natural Resource Research Institute 5013 Miller Trunk Highway Duluth, Minnesota 55811 Phone: (218)-720-2710 FAX: (218)-720-4328 E-mail: gsjerven@sage.nrri.umn.edu
Browse Graphic File Name	none available
Browse Graphic File Description
Associated Data Sets	http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html
Section 2	Data Quality Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Attribute Accuracy	US: Attribute accuracy is tested by manual comparison of the source with hard copy plots and/or symbolized display of the map data on an interactive computer graphic system. Selected attributes that cannot be visually verified on plots or on screen are interactively queried and verified on screen. In addition, the attributes are tested against a master set of valid attributes. All attribute data conform to the attribute codes in the signed classification and correlation document and amendments and are current as of the date of digitizing. Canada: Contact NSDB, http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html
Logical Consistency	US: Certain node/geometry and topology (GT)-polygon/chain relationships are collected or generated to satisfy topological requirements. (The GT-polygon corresponds to the soil delineation). Some of these requirements include: chains must begin and end at nodes, chains must connect to each other at nodes, chains do not extend through nodes, left and right GT-polygons are defined for each chain element and are consistent throughout, and the chains representing the limits of the file (neatline) are free of gaps. The tests of logical consistency are performed using vendor software. The neatline is generated by connecting the explicitly entered four corners of the digital file. All data outside the enclosed region are ignored and all data crossing these geographically straight lines are clipped at the neatline. Data within a specified tolerance of the neatline are snapped to the neatline. Neatline straightening aligns the digitized edges of the digital data with the generated neatline (i.e., with the longitude/latitude lines in geographic coordinates). All internal polygons are tested for closure with vendor software and are checked on hard copy plots. All data are checked for common soil lines (i.e., adjacent polygons with the same label). Quadrangles are edge matched within the state, merged into a statewide data sets, and then edge matched to adjacent state data sets. Edge locations do not deviate from centerline to centerline by more than 0.01 inches. Canada: Contact NSDB, http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html
Completeness	US: A map unit is a collection of areas defined and named the same in terms of their soil and/or nonsoil areas. Each map unit differs in some respect from all others in a survey area and is uniquely identified. Each individual area is a delineation. Each map unit consists of one to 21 components. In those few areas where detailed maps did not exist, reconnaissance soil surveys were combined with data on geology, topography, vegetation, climate, and remote sensing images to delineate map units and estimate the percentages of components. The STATSGO map unit components are soil series phases, and their percent composition represents the estimated areal proportion of each within STATSGO map unit. The composition for a map unit is generalized to represent the statewide extent of that map unit and not the extent of any single map unit delineation. These specifications provide a nationally consistent representation of STATSGO attribute data. The actual composition and interpretive purity of the map unit delineations were based on statistical analysis of transect data. The composition was largely determined by measuring transects on detailed soil survey maps. The number of transects used was proportional to the relative size, number, and complexity of the delineations. The combined data on the length of the map units crossed by the transects were used to determine the percentages of the different soil and nonsoil areas in each map unit. Specific limits were established on the classification of soils and the design and name of map units. These limits are outlined in U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1975. Soil Taxonomy: A basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys. Soil Conserv. Serv., U.S. Dep. Agric. Handb. 436.; U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1992. Keys to Soil Taxonomy. SMSS Technical Monograph No. 19. Soil Surv. Staff, Soil Conserv. Serv.; U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1993. National Soil Survey Handbook, title 430-VI. Soil Surv. Staff, Soil Conserv. Serv.; and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1993. Soil Survey Manual. Soil Surv. Staff, U.S. Dep. Agric. Handbook 18. Adherence to National Cooperative Soil Survey standards and procedures is based on peer review, quality control, and quality assurance. Quality control is outlined in documents that reside with the Natural Resources Conservation Service state soil scientist. Canada: Contact NSDB, http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html
Horizontal Positional Accuracy	US: The accuracy of these digital data is based upon their compilation to base maps that meet National Map Accuracy Standards. The difference in positional accuracy between the map unit boundaries in the field and their digitized map locations is unknown. The locational acuracy of soil delineations on the ground varies with the transition between map units. For example, in areas where changes in soils, climate, topography, and geology occur subtly across a portion of a state, the transition between soil map unit boundaries will be gradual. Where these features change abruptly, such as from an area of foothills to a lake plain, the transition will be very narrow. Soil delineation boundaries were digitized within 0.01 inches of their locations on the digitizing source. The digital map elements are edge matched between data sets. The data along each state boundary are matched against the data for the adjacent state. Edge locations generally do not deviate from centerline to centerline by more than 0.01 inch. Canada: Contact NSDB, http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html
Vertical Positional Accuracy	N/A
Lineage	US: Process_Step: Process_Description: Map unit composition was determined by transecting or sampling areas on the more detailed soil maps and expanding the data statistically to characterize the whole map unit. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: SCS1 Process_Date: 1994 Process_Step: Process_Description: Soil map unit lines and symbols were drafted in red pencil on a mylar overlay that was punch registered to fit the mylar USGS 1:250,000-scale topographic quadrangle. A detailed and complete edit was performed on all overlays before digitizing. The soil delineation overlays were raster scanned at a scanning resolution of at least 0.01 inches and converted to a vector format or were manually digitized on a digitizing tablet with a resolution of at least 0.001 inches. Four control points corresponding to the four corners of the quadrangles were used for registration during data collection. The control points were either explicitly entered or developed by the software. The data sets were edge matched and merged into statewide coverages. A detailed and complete edit was performed on all digital data. Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: USGS1, SCS3 Process_Date: 1994 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada: Contact NSDB, http://res.agr.ca/CANSIS/NSDB/META/query.html  Data was joined together then clipped with the 50 km lake superior basin boundary, and split into county coverages for the US side. It was left whole for the canadian side.
Source Scale Denominator	250000
Section 3	Spatial Data Organization Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Native Data Set Environment	Arc/INFO
Geographic Reference for Tabular Data
Spatial Object Type	Vector
Vendor Specific Object Types
Tiling Scheme	States
Section 4	Spatial Reference Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Horizontal Coordinate Scheme	Geographic (Lat. Long.)
Ellipsoid	GRS80
Horizontal Datum	NAD83
Horizontal Units	Meters
Distance Resolution
Map Projection Name	Albers Equal Area
Map Projection Parameters	Standard Parallel: 29.5 Standard Parallel: 45.5 Longitude Of Central Meridian: -96 Latitude Of Projection Origin: 23 False Easting: 0 False Northing: 0
Other Coordinate System's Definition	Planar Coordinate Encoding Method: Coordinate Pair Abscissa Resolution: 1 Ordinate Resolution: 1 Semi-Major Axis: 6378206.4 Denominator of Flattening Ratio: 294.98
Section 5	Entity and Attribute Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Entity and Attribute Overview	Map Unit Delineations are closed polygons that are generally geographic mixtures of groups of soils or soils and nonsoil areas. The map unit ID uniquely identifies each closed delineation, map unit. Each map unit ID is linked to a map unit name. The map unit ID is also the key for linking information in the Map Unit Interpretations Record tables. Canada: Any field with a 'DV' preceding the word indicates a dominant value. The dominant value reports the class of the selected variable with the largest total percent occurence in the polygon. DV Kindmat- indicates kind of soil, rock outcrop, or other material at the surface IC Ice and snow OR Organic soil R1 Soft Rock R2 Hard Rock, acidic R3 Hard Rock, basic R4 Hard Rock SO Mineral Soil WA Water UR Urban F Rock Field DV-Percent- This indicates the percentage of the polygon that is occupied by the component DV-Drainage E Exessive R Rapid W Well M Moderately well I Imperfect P Poor V Very poor # Non-applicable Ecodistrict-A part of an ecoregion characterized by distinctive assemblages of relief, geology, landforms, soils, vegetation, water, and fauna. US: There are only two entitites which are different from the canadian side Drainage- This field indicates the type of drainage as does the Canadian dv_drainage Drain_desc-This field provides a description of the drainage It is important to note that both tables were merged into one file. This would explain the presence or lack of values for certain fields from Canada or the US
Entity and Attribute Detailed Citation	None
Section 6	Distribution Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Publisher	Natural Resources Research Institute
Publication Date
Contact Person Information	Gerald Sjerven, GIS Specialist Natural Resources Research Institute 5013 Miller Trunk Hwy Duluth, Minnesota 55811 Phone: (218)-720-4388 FAX: (218)-720-4328 E-mail: gsjerven@sage.nrri.umn.edu
Distributor's Data Set Identifier
Distribution Liability	No warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the accuracy or utility of the data on any other system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. It is strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data. The University of Minnesota shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein.
Transfer Format Name	Arc/INFO export
Transfer Format Version Number
Transfer Size
Ordering Instructions
Online Linkage	Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above.
Section 7	Metadata Reference Information - - - - - - Go back to top
Metadata Date	08/25/1999
Contact Person Information	Joel Nelson, GIS Intern Natural Resource Research Institute 5013 Miller Trunk Highway Duluth, Minnesota 55811 Phone: (218)-720-4254 FAX: (218)-720-4328 E-mail: jnelson@sage.nrri.umn.edu
Metadata Standard Name	Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines
Metadata Standard Version	2.01
Metadata Standard Online Linkage	http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/gc/stds/metadata.htm

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