Exercise: LaSal Mt. Soils

Exercise Setup:

You should have completed the previous exercise 'Acquiring GIS Data: Utah', before completing this exercise.  This exercise will step you through the process for acquiring data for a specific region in Utah.  You will find the appropriate quadrangle(s) at the correct scale.  You will be introduced to the process of downloading files individually and in groups.  You will import and process the downloaded data.

Steps:

• Download the physiographic subdivisions of Utah to define the project area

• Run an import utility to import the interchange files

• Select by attribute and select by location to find the quadrangles for project

• Extract project boundary and convert to coverage

• Use the selected information to help search for data in the SGID

• Download the various interchange files for all Quadrangle in project area

• Batch import the e00 interchange files

• Append and clip the soil data for project area

• Dissolve the new coverage by soil type

• Classify final coverage

For the first part of this exercise our goal is to create a soil map of the ‘La Sal Mountains’ in San Juan County, Utah.   In 1977 a gentlemen by the name W. L. Stokes created a map showing the physiographic subdivisions of Utah, which was published in “Geology in Utah,” Utah Geological and Mineral Survey 1986.  Later the Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) digitized this 8-1/2” x 11” paper map and published the digital data in January 2001 to the State Geographic Information Database (SGID).  

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