Relevance of the Soil Survey to Hydrology: Can We Take a Mulligan?.

The USDA Soil Survey is a useful tool for the agricultural applications it was originally designed to support. However, this agricultural legacy is one of its most significant handicaps when trying to apply soil survey data towards other applications, especially those involving hydrologic assessment and interpretations. While this problem is in part due to data collection requirements and costs to adequately address hydrologic questions, this problem is also a result of USDA-NRCS Soil Survey staff downsizing over the last twenty years.  Rather than asking for a “Mulligan” with our Soil Survey, several non-traditional options exist for furthering the utility of the Soil Survey in its current form via: privatization of some elements of data collection and interpretation; new joint industry-academia-USDA MOU’s supporting proprietary updating of high resolution soil survey mapping and data; and new data service collection/delivery techniques.