Texas Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO)

This dataset is a digital soil survey and generally is the most detailed level of soil geographic data developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The information was prepared by digitizing maps, by compiling information onto a planimetric correct base and digitizing, or by revising digitized maps using remotely sensed and other information. This dataset consists of georeferenced digital map data and computerized attribute data. The map data are in a soil survey area extent format and include a detailed, field verified inventory of soils and miscellaneous areas that normally occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped. The soil map units are linked to attributes in the National Soil Information System (NASIS) relational database, which gives the proportionate extent of the component soils and their properties.During the third week of January 2014, all available SSURGO data were downloaded from Web Soil Survey to a local cache. As part of the download process, the tabular data for each survey were imported into individual SSURGO template databases (MS Access format) using a custom set of 'SSURGO Download Tools' for ArcGIS 10.1. For each state or territory, intersecting SSURGO datasets were identified using the 'laoverlap' table (Legend Area Overlap). The selected datasets were merged and converted from shapefile and MS Access tables into a single ESRI file geodatabase for that state or territory. The data were not clipped to a state boundary, thus in some instances feature classes may extend beyond a state's boundary. All datasets were projected from the original Geographic WGS 1984 coordinate system to the appropriate Albers Equal Area Conic coordinate system. Relationship classes between tables and feature classes were created in the geodatabase.A 10 meter file geodatabase raster layer was created by converting the 'MUPOLYGON' feature class from feature to raster using 'FeatureToRaster' which is a cell-center-based method in ArcGIS 10.1. Where available, the raster layer was aligned to the USGS NLCD raster. Pyramids and a raster attribute table were created. A single attribute 'MUKEY' was added to the raster attribute table to facilitate joins with the attribute data.