The SSURGO metadata is independent of what soil survey data currently resides in the database.  The SSURGO metadata not only describes those tables that are considered to be part of the SSURGO standard, it also describes the tables used to drive the Soil Data Viewer application.  This database contains many tables that are not part of the SSURGO standard and are not described in the SSURGO metadata.

Below is a brief description of each SSURGO metadata report.

Note that these reports are accessed via the System Reports form, rather than the Soil Reports form.

SSURGO Metadata – Tables

This report provides a narrative description of each table in the SSURGO standard.

SSURGO Metadata - Table Columns

This report lists the columns of each table in the SSURGO standard.  This is the source for column name, logical data type, field size, precision, minimum, maximum and associated domain name, if any.

SSURGO Metadata - Table Column Descriptions

This report provides a narrative description of every column in every table in the SSURGO standard.

SSURGO Metadata - Indexes

This report documents all unique and duplicate indexes defined for tables in the SSURGO standard.  What unique constraints (unique indexes) are defined is of primary interest.  In the SSURGO standard, relatively few business oriented unique constraints are defined.  Most of the unique constraints represent non-business oriented unique constraints (i.e. surrogate keys).

SSURGO Metadata – Relationships

This report documents all relationships between tables in the SSURGO standard.  This information is important for understanding the relationship between various soil attributes and entities.  This information is needed in order to be able to effectively query the database.  This is the same type of information that is typically available in a physical data model diagram.

SSURGO Metadata – Domains

This report documents all domains associated with columns of tables in the SSURGO standard.  If a column is associated with a domain, that relationship will be documented in the report titled “SSURGO Metadata – Table Columns”.  A particular column may be associated with one and only one domain, but a particular domain may be associated with more than one column.  This report displays all possible members of a domain.  For some domain members, an additional narrative description is sometimes available.