About the SoLIM Training Project

SoLIM (Soil Land Inference Model) provides a new technology for soil mapping based on recent developments in Geographic Information Science and artificial intelligence. It was developed to overcome the limitations of existing soil survey methods and to improve the efficiency and accuracy of soil survey. Case studies have shown that SoLIM is faster and more accurate than traditional survey methods, that it generates a range of products not available using the traditional approach, and that it can be employed in a production mode of soil survey. However, to date SoLIM has only been used in a research setting with the close involvement of developers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We intend to create a training program that would permit transfer of this important technology to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, where it can enter routine use in soil survey work throughout the nation.

A complete training program would consist of three major stages. The first stage is to train the NRCS GIS specialists on the concepts, theoretical basis, and the operation of the SoLIM approach. The second stage is to train the NRCS GIS specialists to work with NRCS soil scientists for conducting soil survey using SoLIM. The third stage is to assist the trained NRCS GIS specialists when they apply the SoLIM approach in soil survey production mode. This project will develop a complete training program (all three stages).