On June 9 -13^th the University of Rhode Island in Narragansett, Rhode Island hosted the U.S. National Cooperative Soil Survey Conference, bringing soil and ecological specialists together to promote the collection and delivery of soil resource information. The National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) is a nationwide partnership of U.S. Federal, regional, State, and local agencies who work to investigate, classify, and disseminate information about soils.

Many attendees expressed interest in using LandPKS as part of a soil information knowledge system to help land managers identify and understand land potential. For example, the LandINFO module provides the tools for thorough identification of soil texture, rock fragment, and soil color as well as characterizing site information such as slope, land use, and soil limitations. Feedback from scientists also included an interest for LandPKS to develop in-app tools to deliver soil survey products based on user soil inputs.

Soil scientists visit a productive agricultural soil subject to recent coastal erosion. Photo by Jon Andreoni.

For more information on the soil color module and other features available, check out the details of the current version 3.2 release. The LandPKS app is free and available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The LandPKS app was developed by the LandPKS Team for the Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) with support largely from USAID and USDA-ARS. Please contact us with any questions, comments, or feedback.