Gridded National Soil Survey Geographic Database (gNATSGO)

The gridded National Soil Survey Geographic Database (gNATSGO) is a USDA-NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) Soil & Plant Science Division (SPSD) composite ESRI file geodatabase that provides complete coverage of the best available soils information for all areas of the United States and Island Territories. It was created by combining data from the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO2), and Raster Soil Survey Databases (RSS) into a single seamless ESRI file geodatabase.

The gNATSGO database contains a 10-meter raster of the soil map units and 70 related tables of soil properties and interpretations. It is designed to work with the SPSD gSSURGO ArcTools. Users can create full coverage thematic maps and grids of soil properties and interpretations for large geographic areas, such as the extent of a State or the conterminous United States.

SSURGO is the SPSD flagship soils database that has over 100 years of field-validated detailed soil mapping data. SSURGO contains soils information for more than 90 percent of the United States and island territories, but unmapped land remains. The current completion status of SSURGO mapping is displayed (PDF). STATSGO2 is a general soil map that has soils data for all of the United States and island territories, but the data is not as detailed as the SSURGO data. The Raster Soil Surveys (RSSs) are the next generation soil survey databases developed using advanced digital soil mapping methods.

The first version of gNATSGO was created in 2019. It is composed primarily of SSURGO data, but STATSGO2 data was used to fill in the gaps. Three RSSs have been published as of 2019. These were merged into the gNATSGO after combining the SSURGO and STATSGO2 data. The extent of RSS is expected to increase in the coming years.

Resources in this dataset:
Resource Title: Website Pointer for Gridded National Soil Survey Geographic Database (gNATSGO).
File Name: Web Page, url: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/geo/?cid=nrcseprd1464625
The gNATSGO website provides an Overview slide presentation, Download links for gNATSGO databases (CONUS or States), ArcTools, Metadata, Technical Information, and Recommended Data Citations.