AGRASID: Obtaining a Copy

First, AGRASID 3.0 is a collection of three components, you will probably want all three:

• Spatial data: The soil landscape polygon line work, and the polygon attribute table.
• Related databases: Attributes of the soil landscape polygons, which are related to the polygon attribute table in either one-to-many or many-to-one ways. These include information on land systems, soil series, and soil horizons.
• Metadata: particulars about the content of the spatial and attribute data.
• Township grid a non-proprietary legal township fabric that fits the geographic data presented in AGRASID 3.0

The Spatial data (AG30) consist of soil landscape polygons and their immediate attributes. They were created and edited in Arc/Info^® coverage format, using Arc/Info^® software (from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)).

You need to make decisions about three things, before downloading the spatial data.

1) The spatial data are available in two formats, through the table below. ESRI's Arc Export (.E00) format is truest to the original development work. In case your GIS software is not able to import these .E00 files, the Spatial data have also been converted to ESRI's Shapefile format. Note also that the shapefile format includes the polygon attribute table in the more widely readable .DBF format.

To find out more about the ESRI formats, see ESRI Support.

2) The spatial data are available in a ten degree transverse mercator (Alberta 10TM) projection, or in geographic (latitude/longitude) coordinates. In both instances a North American Datum 1983 (NAD83) datum has been used. Note that the Alberta 10TM projection has a false easting of 500,000 meters.

3) Once you have selected the format and projection you want, you will be able to choose whether you want the spatial data in its entirety, or by individual Natural Resources Canada 1:250,000 NTS map sheets.

Select a projection and a file format. After making this choice, you will be able to decide which mapsheets you want.

The related databases are a set of four database files containing information about basic soil evidence (AG30MAS), soil names (AG30SNF), soil layers (AG30SLF) and land systems (AG30LSLG). The User's Manual explains how these are related to the polygon attribute table (which is a part of the spatial data, above). The files are in .DBF format, which can be imported into most GIS, spreadsheet and database software platforms. The attribute data files are available for download from the box below.

You will want all four of these database files

The metadata describing the spatial data and associated databases are available in a .ZIP archive, which can be downloaded from the box below. This archive includes the AGRASID 3.0 User's Manual and the AGRASID 1.0 User's Manual as well.

Township Grid

The township grid is a free non-proprietary add-on to AGRASID 3.0 that allows for the same level of search by township capability that was available in the previous version of AGRASID.

Derived from the original spatial information contained in AGRASID 1.0 the township grid has been re-projected to fit the current AGRASID 3.0 boundaries.. 

The geographic shape merging functionality that was available in the Geographic Information Software we used allowed for the creation of township shape objects. Some post processing was required to clean up some minor errors not caught in the original shape merging process. The result was a non-proprietary township grid that is within a tolerance of plus or minus four meters.

The township grid can be downloaded in two standard GIS formats:

• The ESRI arc EXPORT Format (*.e00), as well as
• The ESRI Shapefile Format (* .dbf, *.sbn, *.sbx, *.shp, and *.shx)

• The Alberta ten degree transverse mercator using the North American Datum NAD 1983 (T83) projection and the
• The Geographic or latitude, longitude projection using the North American Datum NAD 1983 (G83).