https://github.com/ncss-tech/ssurgo-parent-material
Project planning, code, and correlation tables for a major overhaul of component parent material records.
https://github.com/ncss-tech/ssurgo-parent-material
Last synced: 3 months ago
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Project planning, code, and correlation tables for a major overhaul of component parent material records.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ncss-tech/ssurgo-parent-material
- Owner: ncss-tech
- Created: 2019-03-21T22:15:23.000Z (about 6 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2019-03-22T06:58:20.000Z (about 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-13T00:43:51.996Z (4 months ago)
- Language: HTML
- Size: 7.92 MB
- Stars: 2
- Watchers: 10
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
# Parent Material Simplification/Normalization Project
## Background
There is a vast amount of field-based knowledge about environmental properties and processes contained in the data structure of the national soil survey database. Creating pathways for sharing that knowledge with our customers is critical, so that individuals and society can make informed land use decisions.
Creating products for customers from the soil survey database is difficult for two primary reasons. One is the complexity of the data structure. The other is that soil survey work has been managed within administrative boundaries over the course of many decades. The result is that there are differences in how the data have been populated for different areas across the landscape. For both those reasons, both data analysis and visual products can be difficult to understand.
Two very useful soil properties contained in the component/map unit data structure are parent material kind (process) and origin (geology). These data represent tens of thousands of observations of parent material gained during decades of soil survey work in the field. Parent material kind represents a process. Parent material origin is the geologic origin of the parent material kind. Delivering these two fundamental properties as data for analysis or as map products, can inform many kinds of land use decisions. Examples of products and uses for these products are summarized below in the Outcomes section.
## Problem
There are several categories of problems with the parent material data in the soil survey database. These include naming conventions, data complexity, and differences in scale of application for the same data. These problems result in two challenges. One is the difficulty of using the data to elucidate relationships between the soils and these properties across the landscape. The other challenge is the visual confusion created by different, but conceptually duplicative, categories. Both challenge our ability to understand environmental processes across landscapes.
We would like to have the flexibility of scaling the complexity up or down, depending on the analysis chosen. But we want to be reasonably sure that the base level of complexity represents both real and useful differences. We also want to retain historical knowledge that captures real differences across the landscape.
[Further background, PPTX](https://ncss-tech.github.io/ssurgo-parent-material/project-planning/pm-ideas.pptx)
## Correlation of Parent Material Origin
* [high-res SVG](https://ncss-tech.github.io/ssurgo-parent-material/pmorigin-correlation/coarse-groupings.svg)
* [interactive viz](https://ncss-tech.github.io/ssurgo-parent-material/pmorigin-correlation/correlation-viz.html)
## Correlation of Parent Material Kind
