Northeast New Technology Committee

Co-Chairs: Amanda Moore, USDA-NRCS; Tim Prescott, USDA-NRCS

Charges

1. Establishment of a NCSS working group to review existing NCSS mapping standards for soil and terrestrial ecosystem inventories, and their applicability to digital soil mapping. Recommend interaction with the Standards Committee.
2. Commit the resources needed for the NCSS partnership to enhance the delivery, application, and visualization of soil survey information.
3. Committee recommends the National and Regional New Technology Committees continue on.
4. Committee would like to recommend to the NCSS Conference Steering Committee that a more formal process be developed for future meetings to solicit a request for New Technology projects, such as a call for papers, presentations, posters, etc. This may also be applicable to other Committees as well.
5. Develop a working definition for “Digital Soil Mapping”
6. Create a Bibliography of published or developmental Digital Soil Mapping efforts currently underway within the NCSS.
7. Provide recommendations to Regional New Technology Committees to improve forwarding of charges to National New Technology Committee.
8. Address training needs to support use of New Technology applications and Digital Soil Mapping techniques.
9. Support the use SharePoint technology to keep the New Technology Committees involved and informed between meetings.
10. Actively support the development of tailored soil information products based on SSURGO data delivered from the Soil Data Mart or Web Soil Survey (examples: Soil Series Extent Mapping Tool, Forages Decision Support System, etc.)
11. NRCS should continue to work towards the development of an API to allow direct access to SSURGO and other soils data; upon implementation, support to developers interested in accessing this data should be provided.
12. Establish a Developer Network for developers (NCSS partnership? Others?) working with SSURGO and other soils data; share information with developers through workshops, technical support, documentation, training, etc.
13. Prepare official disclaimer for custom soil applications regarding potential problems with spatial or tabular data and clearly stating that the official source of soil survey data is the Soil Data Mart.
14. Consider establishing an NCSS subcommittee on use and visualization of soil survey information.
15. Support the establishment an NCSS committee or subcommittee (under Standards and/or New Technology) to review existing NCSS mapping standards for the soil and ecology business areas and their transfer to a digital geospatial environment.
16. Develop a framework for digital mapping standards, their review and documentation. Establish a special team of knowledgeable scientists to work toward this goal by the 2007 National NCSS meeting.
17. Develop a web page for the Northeast Region National Cooperative Soil Survey Partnership with links to other regions, NRCS, FS, NPS, University and other web pages, conference information, committee information, and a bulletin board for information exchange.
18. Post minutes from NRCS and other agency or university advisory groups relevant to the NCSS to a central location in a timely fashion.
19. Update the NCSS newsletter format – consider a web-based newsletter with hyperlinks, etc. to encourage a wider audience.
20. Adjust the current federal requirements for soil scientist positions (GS-470) to incorporate GIS and Remote Sensing training; recommend that universities also incorporate GIS and Remote Sensing coursework into soil science degree programs.
21. Develop a list of recommended GIS/RS skills for current and new soil scientists and provide a means of obtaining these skills to current soil scientists in the NCSS through on-line, face-to-face, or on-the-job training.
22. Utilize Geospatial Extension Specialists at Land Grant, Sea Grant, and Space Grant Universities to provide training in GIS/RS.
23. Develop call list/bulletin board/etc to facilitate sharing GIS/RS tips/tricks/instructions amongst NCSS; Include contact information and/or moderate the discussion.
24. Consider implementing quarterly teleconferences/ net-meetings among soil survey GIS users for training, communication, etc (NRCS-specific?, Tech Centers?).
25. NGDC and NCGC should appoint representatives to serve as (permanent?) liaisons to regional New Technology Committees (2 each for a total of 4)