A 1994 survey of the Minnesota GIS community identified soil data at the top of the list of needs for new and improved data. The need was especially high for county governments and natural resource agencies. At the time, only one of Minnesota’s 87 counties had a spatially correct digital soil map and the rate of production for such products by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS-then called the Soil Conservation Service) was one county per year. Something needed to be done to provide the required geospatial soil data.

NRCS recognized a need to accelerate soil mapping nationwide and joined with USGS and other federal agencies to create a National Digital Orthophoto Program, with the expectation that the resulting orthophotos would provide a solid base for creating new soil maps. The Minnesota legislature provided matching funds, which accelerated completion of orthophotos across the state. As a consequence of the availability of these orthophotos, NRCS scientists focused new mapping activities on Minnesota.

The Minnesota Governor’s Council on Geographic Information created a soil committee, which studied the situation and determined that the biggest problem for many counties was spatial distortion in many of their soil maps, caused by lack of an orthoimagery base when the maps were compiled. Most Minnesota counties are in areas of low to moderate relief, and there was hope that these existing soil maps could be adjusted to the spatially correct orthophotos using elevation data collected as part of the National Digital Orthophoto Program.

The Minnesota Legislature, using special funds set aside for investing in natural resources, funded research by Professor Jay Bell at the University of Minnesota to see if such adjustments could be made without distorting other parts of the map. The project was successful and his approach is now being considered for approval by NRCS for use in other states. The approach has also helped focus fieldwork in counties updating obsolete soil maps.

As of late 2000, fourteen Minnesota counties have spatially-correct, modern digital soil maps and ten more are in progress. This progress would have been impossible without the contributions of the NRCS, USGS, the state policy council, the state legislature, individual counties, and the University of Minnesota.