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Wayne County Urban Soil Survey June 1, 2017 | Eric Gano, USDA-NRCS

Photo courtesy of William Baule, 2015

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History and Preparation for Urban Mapping

Wayne County Urban Soil Survey:

History • Soil Survey of Wayne County Area, Michigan

• Memorandum of Understanding with Wayne County Board of Commissioners excludes the “heavily urbanized metropolitan portion of Wayne County”

• 1974 – Soil Survey is completed with 170,944 acres of the county unmapped

Preparation for Mapping • 2007 – State Soil Scientist asked Flint staff to look into

completing the Wayne County soil survey • Start looking at available base materials for mapping

• 1967 and 1992 black and white aerial photography • 1999 color infrared aerial photography • 2005 true color National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images • USGS topographic quadrangles (historic)

• None of these made an adequate base map • Too little relief and too many buildings to accurately stereoscope

landform breaks on the aerial photography • Artificial drainage obscured the moisture signatures on the color

infrared photography • NAIP imagery are leaf-on, so tree canopies obscured the ground • USGS topographic quadrangles are not detailed enough to identify

landform boundaries

Preparation for Mapping • 2008 – Michigan NRCS partnered with city, county, state,

and federal agencies to acquire high resolution LiDAR elevation data for Wayne County.

• Late 2009 – Flint staff receives the LiDAR coverage and

waits for MOUs to be signed with 23 municipalities. • Start collecting data on landforms and parent materials

• Geologic Atlas of the United States – Detroit Folio (1917) • EPA and Michigan DEQ studies and reports • Michigan DOT highway engineering borings • Consulting firm and city government engineering borings • Research papers

Preparation for Mapping • LiDAR derived elevation models allowed the creation of

detailed maps suitable for a mapping base

LiDAR derived hillshade with 5x vertical exaggeration

and elevation overlay

2016 True Color NAIP imagery

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Mapping Urban Soils

Wayne County Urban Soil Survey:

Mapping Techniques • Auger Descriptions

• Tile spade, bucket auger, tarp, 5-gallon bucket

Mapping Techniques • Field Note Card

• Collect information to identify the natural soil • Collect information to analyze human-transported material

Mapping Techniques • Soil Pedon Descriptions

Mapping Techniques • Issues

• Large number of individual land owners • Landscaping

Mapping Techniques • Solutions to Access Problems

• Municipalities gave access to right-of-ways, parks, schools, and all city-owned properties.

Mapping Techniques • Solutions to Access Problems

• Drive the streets • Construction and Public Works Projects

Mapping Techniques • Solutions to Access Problems

• Grosse Pointe News • Article inspired residents to give us access

• Wayne County Conservation District • Secured access to sampling sites throughout the area

• Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative sites

• Required onsite soil investigation for EQIP applications

Mapping Techniques • Solutions to Access Problems

• Wayne State University • Research projects on former home lots

• Environmental Protection Agency • Research project on infiltration and runoff

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Completing the Soil Survey

Wayne County Urban Soil Survey:

Completing the Soil Survey • Map the Natural Soils

• Map unit boundaries placed on field sheets and refined in GIS

• Analyze the Data by Map Unit, Landform, and Land Use • 2,160 field notes

• 304 horizon samples run in Flint lab • Particle size, pH, EC, CaCO3 equivalent

• 113 full pedon descriptions • 10 pedons sent to Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory

• 10 descriptions and characterization from prior WSU research • 60 descriptions from EPA study

• 59 horizons with characterization data • 472 descriptions from consulting companies and cities • 295 descriptions from MDOT borings along Interstate 96

Completing the Soil Survey • Determine Percentage of Impervious Surfaces

• Surface cover layer provided by SEMCOG

• Delineate Map Units Based On: • Natural soil composition • Thickness of human-transported material • Type of human-transported material • Percentage of area covered by impervious surfaces

• Identify and Delineate Special Features • Escarpment, anthropogenic • Organic spot • Sandy spot • Short steep slope • Wet spot

• Join Surrounding Soil Surveys

Completing the Soil Survey

Completing the Soil Survey • 3 New Soil Series and 153 New Map Units

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General Properties of the Soils

Wayne County Urban Soil Survey:

Human-Transported Material • Derived from a Local Source

• Generally from C horizon material (“parent material”)

• Residential Areas • Thickness averages 30 cm • Artifact content averages 2 to 6 percent by volume • Parks and school yards are similar to commercial areas

• Commercial and Industrial Areas • Commercial and light industrial areas

• Thickness averages 94 to 99 cm • Industrial Areas, “Downtown” and along the Detroit River

• Thickness averages greater than 200 cm • Loamy HTM artifact content averages 40 to 50 percent by volume • Sandy HTM artifact content averages 10 percent by volume

Water and Restrictive Layer • Soil Water

• Water from rainfall and snowmelt • Drier than in non-urban settings

• Runoff of impervious surfaces • Artificial drainage

• Perches on densic material • Flows laterally to low point in densic material or to outlet

• Generally absent by mid-June to early July • Densic Material

• Compacted loamy to clayey till • Loamy: 1.85 to 1.95 g/cm3 bulk density • Clayey: 1.5 to 1.8 g/cm3 bulk density

• Root restrictive with very low saturated hydraulic conductivity • Present across entire area

• Not always within the 200 cm zone of observation

Densic Material

Percent Clay 50 to 100 cm

Playground Suitability

Surface Water Management Systems

Questions?