Getting Land Unit boundaries from the NRCS

From Wikiagro.com

This exercise is included in the tutorial: GeoAgro for Conservation Activity Planning

In this learning guide, you will learn how to export GIS data from your customer folder, such as land unit boundaries, and then import that data into GeoAgro GIS or other GIS of your choice.

Note:

The data you have access to in the NCPDB may not be the same shown in the screenshots. However, the steps to carry each operation will be the same.

Note:

To proceed with this learning guide you need to have gone through the following learning guides:

Video

Exercises

Exercise 01 - Exporting Land Unit Boundaries from the Customer Folder

In this exercise you will learn how to use GeoAgro Cplanner to download farm boundary data from the NCPDB, and import it into GeoAgro GIS.

Open GeoAgro CPlanner, and login with GeoAgro Training credentials as detailed in this exercise: Log in to Cplanner using USDA e-authentication
Search for Folders in Hardin County, IA, and open one of the 10 training folders included in that County.
On the right panel, click on the downloaded folder to select it and click on “Open folder” to open it. Cplanner will open the Customer folder window.
You are now in the “Conservation Plans” tab. Go to the “Export to” menu and click in export to “XML”.
A “Save file...” window will pop up. Save your file to your local disk in the default location.
Now browse to the folder you used to save the file. For Windows XP, It is usually at “C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\GeoAgro\Conservation Planner”, where “YOUR USERNAME” is the username you use to log in your Microsoft Windows session. For Windows Vista and 7, it is usually located at "C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\GeoAgro\Conservation Planner", where “YOUR USERNAME” is the username you use to log in your Microsoft Windows session. You will notice that CPlanner generates a file called “Session_Meta_Data_Dev001-------IA001.xml” and a folder called “SessionExportData”.
Inside this folder there is an .xml file (Dev001-------IA001.xml). That is the correct one. Now we are going to import the available NRCS Land Units into the GIS. Please, make sure you use the file inside the folder, and not the one outside of "SessionExportData".

Exercise 02 - Open Your Project in GeoAgro GIS

Start GeoAgro GIS by double clicking on its icon at your desktop; you may also run it by using the Windows® Start menu.

The Project Selection window will pop up. Select the Sample Farm Iowa project previously created in this Learning Guide: Create a Project and add data

Your project will be opened and ready for editing

Exercise 03 - Importing land unit boundaries into GeoAgro GIS

First, click on the 'Fields_NRCS' layer to make active.
Then, click on the “Edit layer’s object” from the “Edition Panel” and select the option “Import data from CPlanner”.
A window will pop up asking you for the location of the .xml file you want to import. Select the “Session_Meta_Data_Dev001-------IA001.xml” file that you recently exported from CPlanner and click on “Open”. Double-click on the “Fields (NRCS)” layer to zoom to land units you just imported.
In some cases, you may find that there are no land unit boundaries available, in those cases, these are some possible courses of action:
What if there are no land unit boundaries available in the customer folder?
What if the NRCS Land Units are different to the Landowner/Producer Land Units?
Also, you may digitize new land units or modify existing ones by following this learning guide:
Digitizing land features