ArcSIE News, March 16, 2011

Senior Soil Scientists from 12 States Participated in DSM Training Program

Recently, fourteen senior soil scientists from NRCS and NFS participated in a two-week NRCS pilot training program on digital soil mapping (DSM). The fourteen soil scientists came from twelve states, including KS, ND, AK, NH, WV, CO, OK, WY, MO, ID, HI, and NY.

The program contains two sessions. In the first week (February 29 to March 4), the participants took “DSM I: Fundamentals”, an online course run by Professor Phillip Owens at Purdue University. The lectures and exercises covered introduction to DSM, soil-landscape relationship and its exploration and evaluation, data models, data exploration and processing, classification of map types, rule-based models, accuracy assessment, and project management. The participants were exposed to SAGA, SoLIM, SIE, ArcSIE, and other DSM software tools. Besides Professor Owens, the DSM I cadre also includes Hans Edwin Winzeler, Mike Muenich, Michele Duarte de Menezes, and Zamir Libohova.

In the second week (March 7 to March 11), the participants had a traditional classroom workshop at the MO12 Office in Amherst, MA. The workshop was under the title “DSM II: Processes with ArcSIE”, and had a focus on “knowledge-based raster soil mapping” and its implementation with ArcSIE. In the lectures, basic concepts and methodology of knowledge-based raster soil mapping, including the rule-based and case-based methods implemented by ArcSIE, were given thorough descriptions and explanations. The terrain analysis tools in ArcSIE for preparing environmental data and the post-processing tools for producing SSURGO maps were covered in details. A successful case study in Essex County, VT was presented. The participants were required to use data of their own mapping areas to experiment with the ArcSIE process. The DSM II cadre includes Bob Long, Jess Philippe, Fred Young, Tom D Avello, and Xun Shi.

Throughout the program, especially at the end of the second week, the participants offered invaluable feedbacks on how this program can be improved.

The program was coordinated by Marc Crouch from Lincoln, NE and Tom D Avello from Morgantown, WV.