WEB SOIL SURVEY

As a beginner user to the USDA Web Soil Survey application, I started out hopeful. It seemed like a simple task to generate a survey of the Opequon Creek watershed area and to separate out relevant information. I quickly discovered that this would not be so simple. First, Opequon Creek watershed is large, around 200,000 acres in total. This made it challenging to get all of the watershed information in one map. I had to create two maps as WSS has a limit on 100,000 acres. A second challenge was the amount of information that is available to the user. For an experienced user, it would be quite simple to filter out what is not needed, but for a beginner, sorting through the information can be overwhelming, just for a minute. Overall though, with the broad range of potential data points that can be proved, this program is worth the effort to learn to use.

I have opted to include two pictures of what the potential map data looks like. I decided to focus on surface water management. Water is very important for all living things, both animals and plants alike, which is the reason for the importance behind monitoring water quality and quantity. Within WSS, surface water management includes depth to bedrock, flooding, large stone content, water erosion and gypsum content.

The first picture is based upon nearly the maximum amount of acreage allowed in the program. It is the northern areas of what is the Opequon Creek watershed and is a very high level view and is great for getting an overall idea of what the area looks like, but not great if you are looking at a very specific area.

The second picture is a much smaller area. It is the area in which Opequon Creek and the Potomac River come together. This view is ideal if your project was centered around a very specific farm or lot.