Soil Surveys

Soil surveys provide very specific information on the extent and distribution of various soil types within the area, as well as information on slope, drainage, climate, wildlife habitat, and possibilities for land use. Soil surveys are used by farmers, real estate agents, land use planners, engineers and others who desire information about the soil resource. The published USDA soil surveys include aerial photos of the county with soil types indicated by outlines.

How to Use a Soil Survey from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service provides basic information about utilizing a soil survey. It can be read online or viewed as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Online Data

Some soil survey data is available online from the NRCS Soils Web site.

NCSS Web Soil Survey (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service)

This Web site allows online viewing of soil survey maps and reports, greatly enhancing access to information on soils. Use the “Area of Interest” tab to define the area you are interested in. Once the area has been defined, you can use the “Soil Map” tab to view and print a map of the soils in your area, save the map to a hard drive, or download the data for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS). You can also use the “Soil Data Explorer” tab to obtain data on the suitability of soil in your area for specific uses.

List of Soil Surveys by State  (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service)

A list of all published soil surveys, grouped by state. Indicates date of survey, whether it is still in print, and whether it is available in paper, on CD-ROM, or online. Includes a link to the online version if available.

Soil Survey  (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service)

This page includes information on the soil survey program, downloadable data, instructions on how to use a soil survey, and other soil information.

Texas Soil Surveys  (UNT Libraries — The Portal to Texas History)

This online collection contains scanned images of all Texas county and reconnaissance soil surveys completed prior to 1950. These historic soil surveys demonstrate early scientific thought regarding soil classification and use. he maps show many cultural features in the landscape such as businesses, churches, schools, mills, gins, and ferries.

Paper Publications

The UNT Libraries' Government Documents Department has an extensive collection of soil surveys from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Most of these cover a single county; there is not yet a soil survey for every county in the United States, but they do cover a large portion of the United States.

Most of UNT's soil surveys can be checked out of the library. A few very old or very popular ones have been put on reserve.

To identify Texas soil surveys and their locations in the UNT Government Documents Department, enter a keyword search "[county name] texas soil survey" in the UNT Library Catalog. For example:

denton texas soil survey