12 Patty, Nic, Nora Check-in 28FEB2024

Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2024

12.1 Attendees

Nora shared her screen in QGIS to show the census urban area clusters data for the US reprojected into UTM zone 15N. She needs to clip this to just Minnesota.
The group looked at the generalized land use data. Nora extracted just the “developed” land use categories. This includes residential, commercial, industrial, etc.
Patty had already clipped the TIGER census boundaries to a 7 or 10 county metro area. There is good alignment between the TIGER developed areas and the generalized land use developed areas.
The group discussed using the TIGER boundaries as a starting point to define the project area. They will remove the Stillwater area in Washington County and cut out Anoka County chunks that stretch beyond the core metro.

Patty will pull SSURGO soil maps for the 7 county metro area and make a layer showing percent of map units that have “urban” in the component name. This will help identify the core urban areas.
She will also pull out Udorthents, as these are commonly used for urban soils but have no data.
Nic suggested also extracting floodplain components, gravel pits, and other “trash can” units that are opportunities for updating.
Nora asked whether well-mapped outer areas should still be updated. Nic said this could add value by updating soil data, but they will focus on the core urban area first.
The group looked at historical land use maps from 1945, 1984, and 2020. There has been a lot of development in the southern part of the metro. Nic noted the survey year ranges will influence what gets updated.

Patty relayed that the NRCS office needs a UMN presenter for the April 2 Fargo meeting. Nic will coordinate with Brent to determine who will present.
Possible kickoff meeting dates are the week of May 6th or the last week of May. Patty will provide a few options from the NRCS side.

Nora will trim the urban area shapefile to the core metro area.
Patty will create SSURGO map unit layers focused on urban, Udorthents, floodplain components, gravel pits, etc.
Nic will follow up on UMN presenter for Fargo kickoff meeting.
Patty will provide date options for kickoff meeting.

Patty showed Nora the clipped TIGER census layer she already created. She will send this to Nora as a starting point.
Nora said the city labels layer would help orient herself. Patty can provide common reference layers.
Patty’s role is Soil Specialist, NRCS Contractor. Nora will update the e-book.
Best days to reach Patty are Tues-Fri. Text is also good for quick questions.
Patty requested county geologic atlases if UMN has hard copies to review. Nora will check and order if needed.

Nora will continue preparing the project area shapefile.
Patty will compile SSURGO layers focused on urban soils.
The team will make final decisions on project area after reviewing additional layers.
Nic and Patty will coordinate scheduling the kickoff meeting for May or June.
Nora and Patty will arrange county atlases for Patty’s reference.
The team will reconvene next Wednesday for continued discussion.