soilDB 2.8.7

soilDB 2.8.7 (2025-01-16)

• Several aliases of NASIS physical column names have been deprecated and will be removed in the next minor release (2.9.x). See https://ncss-tech.github.io/AQP/soilDB/bulletins/2025.01-1-soilDB-NASIS-column-aliases.html for details (#369)
• fetchVegdata()
  • Added "ecostateid", "ecostatename", "commphaseid", "commphasename" to columns from site and siteobs joined into "vegplot" result.
  • Fixed "site" join used for "vegplot" table result. Now using LEFT join to add siteecositehistory information
  • Sites without vegetation plots are now excluded from the result
• get_vegplot_trhi_from_NASIS_db() & get_vegplot_transect_from_NASIS_db() no longer join to the pedon table. Use the "siteobsiid" or vegetation plot "assocuserpedonid" to join to pedon records when necessary.
  • This change avoids issues with unintended duplication of records e.g. lab pedons that have multiple pedons per site observation. Thanks to Nathan Roe for suggestion.
• get_vegplot_*() functions use INNER join to vegtransect table where applicable, so records are only returned for vegplots with an associated transect. Thanks to Zach Van Abbema for suggestion.
• createSSURGO(): more informative error message when no export files found for import
• Improved soilDBdata data sets used for unit tests of fetchNASIS() and fetchVegdata() when a local NASIS instance is not available
• Updated NASIS SoilProfileCollection data sets (loafercreek, gopheridge, mineralKing)

soilDB 2.8.6 (2024-12-23)

• fetchNASIS() and get_site_data_from_NASIS_db() now return Ecological Site State and Community Phase information (ecostatename, ecostateid, commphasename, commphaseid columns) from Site Observation table
• createStaticNASIS() bug fixes
  • Removed workaround for {odbc}/nanoodbc VARCHAR(MAX) columns; now can directly use DBI::dbReadTable() for all tables via NASIS ODBC connection
  • Fixed error when output_path=NULL
• fetchNASIS() changed default behavior to mixColors=FALSE which returns dominant condition for each moisture state rather than mixing LAB color coordinates
  • get_colors_from_NASIS_db() deprecate mixColors argument, add method argument with options "dominant", "mixed", and "none". New aggregation method "none" returns long format representation of color data from phcolor table with no aggregation applied.
• createSSURGO() updates:
  • Added incremental write of tabular data by table and soil survey area, which is much more memory efficient
  • Added maxruledepth argument to allow filtering of cointerp table, and set default to 0.
    • This reduces number of cointerp rows by about 75% for published SSURGO. Generally, Web Soil Survey exports have maximum rule depth of 1, but custom NASIS exports can be "deeper"
  • Updated behavior of filename argument when conn DBIConnection is specified and improved overwrite logic
  • Added dissolve_field to facilitate creating aggregate geometries by "mukey" or other spatial attribute
  • Added include_tabular argument to support omitting tabular data when building a database
  • Now include_spatial and include_tabular are allowed to be a character vectors of table names
    • TRUE is all tables, FALSE is no tables. This allows for subsets of the SSURGO data model to be specified with finer user control over database contents.
  • Now a composite "soil_metadata" table is made with "areasymbol" column and one row per soil survey area, rather than one table per soil survey area. This is more compact and scales better to larger databases.

What's Changed

• fetchVegdata: add siteobsiid to vegplot tables; activate vegbasalarea table by @natearoe in #366
• get_NASIS_table_name_by_purpose: Add basal area tables by @natearoe in #367
• createSSURGO() updates by @brownag in #370
• Deprecate NASIS column name aliases by @brownag in #369

New Contributors

• @natearoe made their first contribution in #366

Full Changelog: 2.8.5...2.8.7