This digital data release consists of an ARC/INFO grid and associated INFO tables. The grid is called MUID and has STATSGO (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1994) soil mapping unit identifiers gridded on a 1-kilometer resolution for the conterminous United States. The INFO tables have soil characteristics data in them. The ITEMS in the tables are weighted average values for several soil characteristics in the STATSGO data base. The weighted average values were computed by aggregating the soil layers and components in the data base.

The INFO tables are called MUID.LAYER, MUID.COMP, MUID.KFACT, MUID.TFACT, and MUID.WEG. The INFO tables can be related or joined to the MUID grid or to individual State coverages (grids or polygons) of MUIDs. Joining or relating the tables to the MUID grid creates 1-kilometer resolution grids of the soil characteristics for the conterminous United States.

The soil characteristics in MUID.LAYER are permeability (PERML and PERMH in the STATSGO data base), available water capacity (AWCL and AWCH), bulk density (BDL and BDH), and organic matter (OML and OMH). The soil characteristics in MUID.COMP are slope (SLOPEL and SLOPEH), depth to seasonally high water table (WTDEPL and WTDEPH), and depth to bedrock (ROCKDEPL and ROCKDEPH). The soil characteristic in MUID.KFACT is the soil erodibility factor (KFACT), the soil characteristic in MUID.TFACT is the soil loss tolerance factor (TFACT), and the soil characteristic in MUID.WEG is the wind erosion group (WEG).

The MUID grid and INFO tables were created with a set of arc macro language (aml) and Fortran programs. Send electronic mail to dwolock@usgs.gov to obtain copies of the computer code. (See Procedures_Used.)