Agricultural Regions of Alberta Soil Inventory Database (AGRASID)

What Has Changed in AGRASID 4.0 and AGRASID 4.1

There were minor changes to the spatial data in AGRASID two along the northern border of Alberta and British Colombia, and one along the central border of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Since the publishing of AGRASID 3.0 some minor errors have also been identified and corrected in an effort to continues improve the data quality contained in AGRASID. These correction amounts to a less than 5 percent change in attribute content within AGRASID.

The database structure and variable naming has been updated in AGRASID 4.0. Where possible, these structural changes adhere to the Canadian Soil Information System (CANSIS) National Soil Database (NSDB) standards for storing national ecological framework spatial and tabular datasets. Variables in AGRASID that have no equivalent in the NSDB were kept to provide continuity with AGRASID 3.0.

The database structure was extended in AGRASID 4.1 to incorporate Land Suitability Rating System (LSRS) variables as well as more information to describe landforms which are part of the AGRASID model.

For further information about how AGRASID was compiled please view the CAESA Soil Inventory Project Procedures Manual. For information on how to use the AGRASID 4.0 geodatabase please contact ARD-Soil Viewer.

Metadata AGRASID 4.1

The metadata for AGRASID 4.1 describes:

What AGRASID is,
How AGRASID can be accessed,
The use restrictions placed on AGRASID,
Who is AGRASID’s custodian,
How AGRASID is situated in geographic space,
What AGRASID contains
How AGRASID is classified according to the International Standards Organization (ISO) 19115:2003 and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standards.

Obtaining Copy AGRASID 4.1
Like previous versions of the Agricultural Regions of Alberta Soil Inventory Database (AGRASID), the current version 4.1 of AGRASID is a digital and spatial representation of the soil landscape information in Alberta. The AGRASID 4.1 download is property of the Alberta Government and is available with unrestricted access. All AGRASID 4.1 components are contained in the following Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) spatial data formats:

ESRI ArcGIS File geo-database (GDB)
ESRI ArcGIS Personal geo-database (MDB)
ESRI ArcGIS Shape file (SHP)
ESRI Enterprise geo-database (XML)

File geo-database (GDB) is the current standard spatial data format. Personal geo-database (MDB) format is for those clients that wish to access AGRASID with ArcGIS, Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel software. The Enterprise geo-database format can be directly imported into an existing ESRI Spatial Database Engine (SDE) environment. ESRI ArcGIS Shape file (SHP) formats will continue to be available with the AGRASID 3.0 download .

For more information about the content of this document, contact Javed Iqbal.
This document is maintained by Laura Thygesen.
This information published to the web on November 28, 2013.
Last Reviewed/Revised on November 14, 2018.