Detailed Soil Survey

A soil survey is an inventory of soils and their spatial distribution over a landscape. Soil survey reports contain two parts. The first part is a soil map or series of maps at a particular scale with coding for each soil. Soil survey reports also include a supporting document that contains background information such as how the soil survey was conducted, and an explanation of interpretive criteria and a summary of the area occupied by various soil types. The detailed soil surveys identify more of the variation in soil types across smaller landscapes, as compared to Generalized (1:100 000, i.e. provincial overview) and Reconnaissance or General (1:125 000, or 1/2 inch to 1 mile.) soil surveys. Detailed soil survey information is much more accurate and reliable for making decisions at the farm-level. Soil surveys have been published for most of the agricultural areas, and many surrounding areas, across Canada. Data from these surveys comprise the most detailed soil inventory information in the National Soil Database (NSDB). Version 3 was created by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in the 2010's by amalgamating version 2 data. It introduced some minor refinements to the version 2 data structure to provide closer alignment with the Soil Landscapes of Canada data structure.