Major Land Resource Area Explorer

The NRCS National Soil Survey and National Geospatial Development Centers recently released Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) Explorer, a Web application that displays the USDA Agriculture Handbook 296 (Land Resource Regions and Major Land Resource Areas of the United States, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin-2006) in an online interactive format.

Through the use of Adobe Flex and Internet map services technologies, the new mapping tool enables the user to
•search for MLRAs using geographical and textual queries,
•select which handbook sections to display, and
•print and save a customized subset of the handbook.

The application provides search methods that can
•browse an interactive map and identify a point or area of interest,
•choose an LRR symbol and name from a list,
•choose an MLRA symbol and name, once an LRR has been chosen,
•select a state or territory name from a list,
•select a county name once a state has been chosen,
•select an 8-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC-8),
•specify a Public Land Survey System township, and
•choose a Federal land managed by U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, or Department of Defense.

The new application can be used to
•visit the MLRA Explorer Web site to browse LRRs and MLRAs in the context of other spatial data or create a selection query,
•execute a search for MLRAs based on geographical or textual criteria,
•select the MLRAs matching the criteria and display them on the map,
•select which sections of the handbook to display in the report, and
•prepare a customized Adobe PDF document to be printed and/or saved.

Data sources used to support the new application include desktop publishing formats that maintain the rich narrative content of the handbook. A simple Access database from the PageMaker documents was created, in order to enable real-time report creation.  This database also will enable more efficient maintenance of the LRR and MLRA information.  The primary LRR/MLRA data set and ancillary geospatial data sets were provided by the NRCS National Soil Survey Center.

A partnership between NRCS and the Center of Environmental Informatics at Penn State University developed this application.  The center hosts the site which can be easily accessed from the soils page of the NRCS website or directly at the Penn State center Web site.
Your contact is Stan Anderson, NRCS editor, at 402-437-5357.