SSURGO Portal

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Quick Links
Quick Start Guides (Download link included in guides)
Overview
User Guide 
Detailed Installation Guides
Technical Specifications
Beta Version
SSURGO Bulk Downloaders (Beta)
SSURGO On Demand (Beta)
Download GeoPackage with All SSURGO
Resources
Version Change History
Feedback and Technical Support
 

Quick Start Guides (Download link included in guides)

Reference the Quick Start guides for a download link, download instructions, and guidance for getting started with SSURGO Portal. Refer to the detailed installation guides and user guide for additional information.

USDA employees are required to install software through the CEC. If you’re not a USDA employee, follow the non-USDA quick start guide.

Non-USDA Quick Start Guide

USDA Employee Quick Start Guide

SSURGO Portal also has integrated help pages that provide an overview of each function.
 

Overview

SSURGO Portal (Beta) is a new license free and open-source USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) application. It creates empty geospatial SQLite SSURGO Template databases that you can import spatial and tabular SSURGO data into. SSURGO Portal contains both GeoPackage and SpatiaLite versions of the template.

Once you’ve created a template database, you can access it with any software that reads SQLite files, including ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, DB Browser, and R. You can query the database, view maps of soil polygons, and create maps of soil properties and interpretations. 

DB Browser is a recommended application. Refer to Resources below for more information.

SSURGO Portal was modeled after the Microsoft Access SSURGO Template database, with the following key differences:

• No license needed
  SSURGO Portal doesn’t require a license or account to use.
   
• Import tabular and spatial data
  You can import both types of soil survey data into the same database.
   
• Batch import and delete
  You can batch import and delete multiple SSURGO packages at once.
   
• No size limitation to the SQLite SSURGO Template
  You can use SSURGO Portal to create a template database of any size. For example, you can create a populated SQLite SSURGO Template database for a single small county, or one that contains all SSURGO data in the United States and Island Territories.

What is an SQLite SSURGO Template Database?

An SQLite SSURGO Template database is an SQLite database file that contains empty tables formatted to accept official SSURGO data. 

The tables in the template:

• Contain all required SSURGO columns
• Have defined column data types
• Have established relationships between tables

The template is empty until you import SSURGO data.

Both GeoPackage and SpatiaLite versions of the template will work in any application that reads SQLite files. These two database types are similar; however, they have different methods of storing spatial data. If you don’t have a preference, we recommend using the default GeoPackage version.

How to Access SSURGO Data

You can access official SSURGO data at Web Soil Survey. 

There are two types of SSURGO data: 

1. Standard SSURGO data packages for entire counties or similarly sized political boundaries.
2. A user-defined area of interest (AOI) of a soil survey. 

SSURGO Portal works with both types of data.

Note 1: Each year, all SSURGO data is refreshed on October 1.

Note 2: While SSURGO data packages are available for all areas of the United States and Island territories, the soil survey has not been completed for some remote areas of the Western United States, much of Alaska, and a few other isolated areas.  When you download SSURGO data for these areas, you will see a single map unit with the map unit symbol of NOTCOM and the map unit name of Not Completed Areas. Additionally, some SSURGO data packages contain a mixture of soil survey data and NOTCOM. Refer to the Soil Survey Status Map for more information about mapping completion status.
 

User Guide

This document contains instructions for downloading SSURGO data, using the SSURGO Portal application to create and populate SQLite SSURGO databases, and working with SQLite SSURGO databases in DB Browser, GIS software, and SSURGO on Demand. 

Detailed Installation Guides

These documents contain detailed information for installing SSURGO Portal. 

USDA employees are required to install software through the CEC. If you’re not a USDA employee, follow the non-USDA installation guide.

Non-USDA Installation Guide

USDA Employee Installation Guide

Technical Specifications

• SSURGO Portal is a Python zip file (.pyz). You access it in the web browser.
   
• SSURGO Portal requires Python 3.9 up to 3.11. All official testing of the Beta version was completed on Python 3.10.2. 
  • As noted in the installation guides, we recommend using Python 3.10.2. We plan to support new versions of Python in future SSURGO Portal releases.
  • If you installed Python as part of ESRI products (ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop) or QGIS, that should not impact SSURGO Portal functionality. 
     
• SSURGO Portal creates geospatial databases, meaning the database contains at least some geometry data that GIS software can read and display as points, lines, or polygons. To create geospatial versions of SQLite databases, SSURGO Portal will install GDAL upon first use. 
   

Beta Version

SSURGO Portal is currently in Beta, though we’ve spent a significant amount of time developing and testing this version. We’re working on releasing major enhancements, including several new key features.

Upcoming features:

• SSURGO Bulk Downloader
• Soil Data Viewer (aggregates SSURGO data and facilitates thematic map creation of soil properties and interpretations)
• Rasterized version of soil polygons

Supplemental tools are available while the upcoming features are being developed.

Supplemental Tools

While SSURGO Portal is in Beta, you can download two temporary external tools that supplement the forthcoming Bulk Downloader and Soil Data Viewer features.

1. SSURGO Bulk Downloader GIS tools will allow batch downloading of SSURGO.
2. SSURGO On Demand provides similar features as Soil Data Viewer.

Notes:

• You will need to download and install these separate from SSURGO Portal.
• We will no longer offer support for these tools once SSURGO Portal has similar functionality.
• There is no supplemental tool for the rasterized version of soil polygons.
   

SSURGO Bulk Downloaders

With SSURGO Bulk Downloader, you can download many SSURGO data packages from Web Soil Survey at once. Without this tool, Web Soil Survey only allows you to download zip files one at a time, which is limiting when you need to create large databases.

There are two tools: one for QGIS and one for ArcGIS Pro. Both tools have the same functionality.

• Extract the file and add the tool to ArcGIS Pro.

• Contains detailed instructions for installing and using the ArcGIS Pro SSURGO Bulk Downloader tool.

• You don’t need to extract this tool because QGIS will use the zip file when you install the tool.

• Contains detailed instructions for installing and using the QGIS SSURGO Bulk Downloader tool.
   

SSURGO On Demand

SSURGO On Demand (SOD) is an open-source Python based tool modeled after Soil Data Viewer. It allows you to use the SQLite SSURGO Template database as an input, then generate tables of soil properties and interpretations, which can be joined to the soil polygons in GIS. It uses SQL statements to aggregate data from the SSURGO child tables up to the map unit. For example, you could determine the average clay content in all soil polygons over a depth of 0 to 100 cm.

While similar to Soil Data Viewer, SOD works outside of GIS and does not create maps. It also doesn’t have the same rating options as Soil Data Viewer.

• Extract to location of your choice.

• Contains detailed instructions for installing and using SSURGO On Demand.
   

Download GeoPackage with All SSURGO

A prepopulated GeoPackage SQLite SSURGO database containing all current SSURGO is publicly available. The file is 28 GB and it will take a while to download.

Download SQLite database containing all SSURGO
 

Resources

DB Browser

DB Browser is a recommended license free application designed to work with SQLite databases. It allows you to view and query the contents of the databases. 

You can use DB Browser to view all tables in populated SQLite SSURGO Template databases. It allows you to submit custom SQL queries against the database, similar to Microsoft Access. DB Browser installation and basic user instructions can be found in the SSURGO Portal Detailed Installation Guides and User Guide. The installation guides also contain instructions for configuring SQLite SSURGO databases to open in DB Browser by default.

SSURGO Metadata

See the SSURGO/STATSGO2 Metadata page to view diagrams and information about SSURGO tables, columns, relationships, constraints, and domains.
 

Version Change History

Release Notes - SSURGO Portal 0.1.0.37

March 27, 2024

Our team is excited to release the newest version of SSURGO Portal! This release includes a link to a user survey, better logging and error messages, and UI improvements to make SSURGO Portal more accessible. Download the newest version to get the latest features and enhancements.

This release includes a link to a user survey, better logging and error messages, and UI improvements to make SSURGO Portal more accessible.

New Features

• You can now provide feedback on SSURGO Portal to help us improve your user experience. Find the link to the Feedback Survey in the SSURGO Portal app or at the top of this webpage.
   
• We're now publishing Release Notes so you can stay up-to-date with what’s changed across versions of SSURGO Portal.

Enhancements

• When you download SSURGO Portal and run it for the first time, you’ll now see more meaningful error messages if something goes wrong. You can view these messages in the command prompt during the initialization process.
   
• We’ve enhanced SSURGO Portal’s logging so it’s easier to identify the root cause of issues. You can view the logs in the .log file located in the same folder as the SSURGO Portal .pyz file. Logs are automatically generated while the app is running.
   
• We've updated the UI so it’s more accessible and complies with Section 508, a federal requirement. This includes improving the design of some buttons and hyperlinks.
   

Feedback and Technical Support

Contact soilshotline@usda.gov for technical support or to provide any user feedback. Feedback will be used to improve SSURGO Portal.