Soils Coverage Proposal

1
Soils Coverage Proposal
NATIONAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY

• Bill McMahon
• Army Customer Support Team (COTA)
• [phone], DSN 570-3001
• mcmahonb_at_nima.mil

2
BACKGROUND

• Army requires a generalized soil data base for
  planning purposes and for generalized avenue of
  approach analysis
• Army has informally requested a generalized soils
  data base as part of Foundation Data (FD)
• FFD Prototype Evaluation
• Army Conferences
• Meetings with TPIO-TD
• TPIO-TD DTD requirements document, 18 Feb 98,
  formally requests NIMA provide soils coverage in
  FD

3
Proposed Soils Coverages

• Soils Information Proposed at Four Levels of
  Detail
• Digitized USDA World Soil Map at 11M Scale
• DTOP Level 1 (MEDS Level 1)
• DTOP Level 3 (MEDS Level 3)
• DTOP Level 5 (DTOP)
• Required Level Based on Mission Needs and
  Timelines
• Define Soils Requirements during MSDS Development

4
Proposed Soils Coverages

• Digitized USDA World Soil Map at 11M Scale
• Provides USDA soil type, geology, landform, and
  other info
• Potential for field with USCS soil texture class
• Soil delineations generalized and difficult to
  fuse with FD
• Qualified Data in Foundation Data Concept
• DTOP Level 1 (MEDS Level 1)
• Soils delineations from USDA Soils Map adjusted
  to associated landforms using CIB or
  orthorectified LANDSAT
• Wet soil trafficability groups (based on USCS
  classes) used to define soil textural classes
• Soil depth and soil moisture information included
  
• Can be accurately fused with FD and other data,
  e.g., controlled MSI

5
Proposed Soils Coverages

• DTOP Level 3 (MEDS Level 3)
• Start with soils delineations from DTOP Level 1,
  and collect inclusions of additional soils using
  textual landform/soil unit descriptions in the
  database in combination with photointerpretation
• Wet soil trafficability groups (based on the
  USCS) used to define soil textural classes
• Soil moisture and soil depth provided can be
  accurately fused with FD, controlled MSI, etc.
• DTOP Level 5 (DTOP)
• Further photointerpretation and breakout of soils
  in DTOP Level 3 using full 16 class USCS rather
  than wet soil trafficability groups
• Soil moisture, soil depth, and soil roughness
  descriptions are provided can be accurately
  fused with FD, controlled MSI, etc.

6
Soils Proposal Issues

• Use of wet soil trafficability groups?
• Are wet soil trafficability groups adequate to
  support WES mobility models and associated soil
  moisture prediction models?
• Can WES alter their mobility models to
  accommodate wet soil trafficability groups?
• Need for soil moisture and soil depth
  information?
• Funding for digitization of USDA World Soils Map?
  
• USDA World Soil Map partly digitized by Texas AM
  to support on-going studies funding required to
  complete project
• Currently investigating funding/partnerships
• Need to define soils requirement during MSDS
  development

7
Soils Analysis Procedures

• Use the USDA 11,000,000 World Soils Map and
  associated textual data as point of departure for
  soils databases, along with other available soils
  and geologic information
• Convert soils textural data to the Unified Soil
  Classification System (USCS)
• Use wet soil trafficability groups to aggregate
  USCS soil textural classes into groups with
  similar characteristics under wet conditions
• Use CIB or orthorectified LANDSAT as a base to
  delineate polygons keyed to landscape units or
  other discernible features
• Provide annotated hard copy or soft copy (TBD)
  CIB with soil delineations to cartographers to
  guide extraction during MSDS production

8
Soils Coverage Proposal
NATIONAL IMAGERY AND MAPPING AGENCY

• Bill McMahon
• Army Customer Support Team (COTA)
• [phone], DSN 570-3001
• mcmahonb_at_nima.mil