You spoke—we listened.

Results of Fall 2006 Customer Survey of Web Soil Survey

In our survey last fall, you spoke clearly for the enhancements and improvements you want in Web Soil Survey. We are happy to announce the release of Web Soil Survey 2.0 and the following highly requested changes:

• The shifted (tilted) AOI boundary problem has been corrected! You can now draw more precise AOI boundaries. To start over after beginning to draw the AOI, press the Escape (Esc) key on your keyboard without lifting the mouse button. Also, for easier and more precise drawing of AOIs, expand the map to full window size by clicking the Full Width Layout button.

  

• Session timeout increased from 20 to 40 minutes The application will issue a warning when the session timeout is imminent (within 5 minutes) and allow you to restart your session timeout.

  

• Navigate to section In addition to navigating by PLSS Range and Township, you can now navigate to a PLSS Section on the AOI tab.

  

• Location marker When you enter an address or latitude/longitude coordinates on the AOI tab, a point marker appearing as an orange/red plus sign (+) marks the requested location.

  

• Map unit descriptions On the Soil Map tab, you can click the map unit name to display a map unit description in a floating window. This is a quick way to view basic soil properties and qualities for your area of interest, such as slope, frequency of flooding and ponding, depth to water table, available water capacity, calcium carbonate, and salinity.

  

• Combined Legend and Layers tab The Legend and Layers tabs have been combined into the Legend tab on the Interactive Map.

  

• Edit layer properties Now you can edit some layer properties. You can turn road labels on and off, change the transparency level on ratings maps, and turn the AOI hashmarks on and off. Just right-click (on the Macintosh, option-click) the layer name in the Legend tab.

  Edit layer transparency step 1.

  

  Edit layer transparency step 2.

  

  Edit layer transparency step 3.

  

• Topo map background In addition to viewing your maps against aerial photography, now you can view your maps against a topographic backdrop (scanned USGS topo maps).

  

• State and county names on maps By default, at the scale where the aerial photography background layer is shown, state and county names and water bodies are turned off on the viewable and printed soil map and soil ratings maps. You can select these layers to turn them on if you wish.

• Custom reports are here! In addition to printing or saving soils data on a page-by-page basis, you can now add maps and data to the shopping cart for inclusion in a Custom Soil Resource Report. It's an easy way to get one polished report containing all relevant information for your area of interest.

  To try out this feature, define your area of interest (AOI), and go to the Shopping Cart tab. In the Table of Contents, notice several report items available by default: Cover, Preface, Contents, How Soil Surveys Are Made, Soil Map, Map Unit Legend, Map Unit Descriptions, References, and Glossary (though not selected). Preview each item by highlighting it, as shown below.

  

  Click Check Out in the upper right corner and select Get now.

  

  The custom soil resource report is displayed in your installed PDF viewer, as shown below.

  

  You can add additional information to your report as desired. From any tab in Web Soil Survey (except the Area of Interest tab), view information and then click Add to Cart, as shown below. In this way, you can compile a report customized to your needs.

  

  Note that there are limits on the number of maps you can add to a custom report, and there are many other options on the Shopping Cart tab. For more information on this feature, click the online help buttons, as shown below:

  

Other changes include:

• A redesigned homepage with featured Tips and Shortcuts.

• Full support for Internet Explorer 7.0.

• When the application is busy taking action on one of your requests, the busy backdrop now contains a message indicating what action the application is taking.

  

• Archived soil survey publications are now available from a link on the main application navigation bar instead of from a tab in the Soil Data Explorer.

  

• Now you can navigate to an area of interest using one of several Federal land categories: a BLM field office, a Department of Defense installation, a U.S. Forest Service unit, or a National park.

  

• Special soil line and point features have been corrected on the map and match the legend symbols.

  

• When zooming in, the zoom factor on the browser map is 2. When zooming out, the zoom factor is 3.

• The Navigational data layer for U.S. Interstate highways better aligns with the orthophoto imagery.

• The Water (bodies of water) layer is turned off by default for soil and soil ratings maps.

• The Suitabilities and Limitations for Use tab is now the default tab in the Soil Data Explorer, and the Soil Map is displayed by default on most of the tabs in the Soil Data Explorer.

  

• Tables from the Soil Reports tab now run in the WSS browser window and display below the map rather than in a separate window.

  

• In addition to being available from the Rangeland use category, the Ecological Site Assessment tab is now available from the Forestland use category.

• A new Totals row at the bottom of most tables shows total acres and total percentage of AOI.

  

• Many of the Suitabilities and Limitations for Use ratings now include the option of getting the numeric rating value (sometimes referred to as the “fuzzy” number).