USDA Soil Survey Overview
API Information
Overview
The LightBox USDA Soil Survey API provides access to soil survey data sourced from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) and maintained by LightBox. The API includes detailed SSURGO soil information for local and property-level analysis as well as STATSGO2 generalized soil information for broader regional analysis. These datasets describe soil map units, their characteristics, interpretations, and productivity, supporting land development, environmental analysis, natural resource planning, property research, and geospatial applications. Through the API, developers and analysts can retrieve soil survey areas and map units by identifier or geometry and integrate authoritative USDA soil information into commercial, environmental, and geospatial workflows.
Key Capabilities
- ✓Return a USDA Survey Area by survey ID
- ✓Return a USDA Survey Area by layer and survey ID
- ✓Return a USDA Map Unit by survey ID
- ✓Return a USDA Map Unit by layer and survey ID
- ✓Return a USDA Survey Area by geometry
- ✓Return a USDA Survey Area by layer and geometry
- ✓Return a USDA Map Unit by geometry
- ✓Return a USDA Map Unit by layer and geometry
Scope
Data Source
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS)
Datasets
- Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO)
- Digital General Soil Map of the United States (STATSGO2)
Applications
- Environmental Due Diligence
- Land Development
- Natural Resource Planning
- Property Analysis
- Site Assessment
- Mapping and Geospatial Analysis