Alberta Soils Viewers

The Alberta Soils Viewer is an Internet resource developed by the Government of Alberta to allow landowners to research and gain information about their land. This program contains information regarding provincial and federal land surveying information dating back 75 years, different soil types, and tools to determine rough land dimensions. Professions ranging from engineers, farmers, students, and professors would have a reason to use this site.

b. Did you find the Soils Viewer useful? Why or why not?

Hypothetically speaking, if I were a farmer or worked in a profession that relied on information generated by this website, I would love this program. If I were looking to enter or expand my farming establishment, I could analyze surrounding parcels to determine which ones would be best to purchase. The information generated from this site may not be the same information received from a realtor, some information could be left out.

c. What would you change about the Alberta Soils Viewers to make it more useful?

Overall, I am quite impressed with the system. After first viewing the program, I had the preconceived notion that this program would be clunky and not user-friendly. Boy was I wrong, after spending a few minutes I enjoyed playing around with the program. The only complaint I would have about the program is that the GIS maps are outdated, circa 1999. The provinces current land layout has changed since then, cities have grown, land subdivisions have occurred, and swamps have been drained.

2. In 250 words describe 3-4 of the most useful features of the online soil viewer and explain why you thought they were useful features?

• The GIS map shows the different soil types that exist in a given area, overlaid on a current image of the region being viewed. Giving farmers valuable information