Digital Soil Mapping to Create Functional Soil Maps.

Most soil information for farm field management has relied on the USDA Soil Survey polygon maps which represent the soil structural heterogeneity rather than the functional homogeneity. Additionally the USDA Soil Survey ascribes one discreet value for a given soil property that represents an entire soil polygon. Also, these maps do not represent the soil landscape at the resolution that is necessary for current site-specific management demands. This paper will present a method for representing soil properties on a continuum at the resolution of a digital elevation model and represents the soil properties as they occur within a field. These soil properties can be combined to group soils that represent areas with similar function and have been demonstrated to relate to responses in yield.