[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-\u002Fblog\u002Funified-soil-survey-layer-western-canada":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":341,"cover":342,"date":343,"description":344,"extension":345,"meta":346,"navigation":347,"path":348,"seo":349,"stem":350,"tags":351,"__hash__":356},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Funified-soil-survey-layer-western-canada.md","Western Canada Soil Survey in One Layer: AB AGRASID, SK Soils, and BC Soil Survey Combined","Township Canada",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":330},"minimark",[10,14,27,32,35,57,60,64,67,70,101,107,119,123,126,172,181,189,193,206,213,217,265,272,276,291,297,301],[11,12,13],"p",{},"A farmland buyer in east-central Alberta wants to compare three quarter sections straddling the AB-SK border before bidding next week. The buy team needs drainage class, slope group, and salinity readings on each parcel, side by side, before money moves. Until now that meant toggling a Saskatchewan soil layer, switching to a separate BC layer for the cross-border holding, and finding the Alberta AGRASID polygons in the federal AAFC viewer because they were not on the Township Canada map at all.",[11,15,16,17,21,22,26],{},"That changes today. The new unified ",[18,19,20],"strong",{},"Soil Survey map for western Canada agriculture"," layer combines the Alberta AGRASID dataset, the Saskatchewan provincial soil survey, and the British Columbia soil survey into a single toggle — rendered from tile-joined ",[23,24,25],"code",{},"soils.pmtiles"," so the map reads like one continuous surface across the three provinces.",[28,29,31],"h2",{"id":30},"the-problem-three-soil-layers-one-buying-decision","The problem: three soil layers, one buying decision",[11,33,34],{},"Soil data lived in three separate places, with three sets of attributes, and one of them was missing from our map entirely.",[36,37,38,45,51],"ul",{},[39,40,41,44],"li",{},[18,42,43],{},"SK Soils"," had its own catalog entry, with drainage and slope attributes specific to the Saskatchewan provincial survey.",[39,46,47,50],{},[18,48,49],{},"BC Soil Survey"," had a second catalog entry, with the BC survey's own polygon set and slope groupings.",[39,52,53,56],{},[18,54,55],{},"AB AGRASID"," — the polygon dataset every Alberta agronomist references — was loaded in the backend but not surfaced anywhere in the agriculture catalog. To compare an AB parcel to its SK neighbour, you opened the federal AAFC viewer in a second tab.",[11,58,59],{},"For an agronomist evaluating a parcel near Lloydminster, or a crop insurance adjuster reconciling claims on land that crosses the meridian, that meant three tools and three different attribute conventions for what is essentially the same question: what is the soil, how does it drain, and how steep is it?",[28,61,63],{"id":62},"how-the-unified-soil-survey-layer-works","How the unified soil survey layer works",[11,65,66],{},"The Soil Survey toggle now mounts all three datasets behind one entry in the agriculture catalog. Province checkboxes inside the layer control which jurisdictions render — toggle off BC if you only work the Prairies, or restrict to Saskatchewan for a single-province acquisition pipeline.",[11,68,69],{},"Three filter chips sit underneath the province controls:",[36,71,72,83,92],{},[39,73,74,77,78,82],{},[18,75,76],{},"Drainage"," (AB, BC) — well-drained through very poorly drained, plus an ",[79,80,81],"em",{},"unreported"," bucket. Saskatchewan does not publish a directly comparable drainage attribute, so SK polygons sit outside the chip rather than silently render the same as a missing value.",[39,84,85,88,89,91],{},[18,86,87],{},"Slope"," (AB, SK, BC) — three slope-class chips that map onto each provincial survey's own grouping, with an ",[79,90,81],{}," bucket per province.",[39,93,94,97,98,100],{},[18,95,96],{},"Salinity"," (AB, SK) — none, weak, moderate, strong, plus ",[79,99,81],{},". BC's soil survey does not carry a salinity attribute on most polygons.",[11,102,103,104,106],{},"The honest ",[79,105,81],{}," buckets are the part worth lingering on. Salinity unreported is not the same as salinity zero — a polygon with no salinity attribute could be a salt flat that was never sampled, or a pristine soil where the surveyor simply did not record the field. The chip surfaces the gap so a downstream reader does not treat \"missing\" as \"safe.\"",[108,109,110],"blockquote",{},[11,111,112,115,116,118],{},[18,113,114],{},"📸 Screenshot placeholder:"," Map layers panel with the Soil Survey toggle expanded — capture the Province checkboxes (AB, SK, BC), the three filter chip sections (Drainage, Slope, Salinity), and one of the ",[79,117,81],{}," sub-chips selected so the legend behaviour is visible. Map view should show AB-SK border with mixed soil polygons rendered. 1200x800.",[28,120,122],{"id":121},"real-example-an-ab-sk-border-buy","Real example: an AB-SK border buy",[11,124,125],{},"Take a three-parcel buy near the border. Two quarter sections on the Alberta side and one across the meridian in Saskatchewan:",[36,127,128,142,156],{},[39,129,130,133,134,137,138,141],{},[18,131,132],{},"SE-1-48-1-W4"," (Alberta, on the meridian) — Black Chernozem on AGRASID, slope class 2-5%, drainage ",[79,135,136],{},"imperfect",", salinity ",[79,139,140],{},"weak",". A reasonable cereal quarter with a small productivity penalty in the lower draws.",[39,143,144,147,148,151,152,155],{},[18,145,146],{},"NE-33-49-2-W4"," (Alberta, one township north and west) — Solonetzic Black Chernozem patches at the south edge, slope class 0-2%, drainage ",[79,149,150],{},"poor"," on the low ground, salinity ",[79,153,154],{},"moderate",". The Solonetzic flag drops the comparable price; the salinity reading explains why a neighbour's barley failed two years running.",[39,157,158,161,162,165,166,168,169,171],{},[18,159,160],{},"NE-25-48-28-W3"," (Saskatchewan, across the meridian) — SK soils returns slope group 0.5-2%, salinity ",[79,163,164],{},"none",", drainage ",[79,167,81],{},". The agronomist plans an in-person walk before final offer. The ",[79,170,81],{}," chip is doing real work here — without it, drainage looks like a missing field rather than a gap to verify on the ground.",[11,173,174,175,180],{},"Three parcels, three soil survey sources, one map, one filter session. The agronomist exports the three ",[176,177,179],"a",{"href":178},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Fone-click-parcel-report","parcel reports"," to PDF and the buy team has soil context before the offer goes in.",[108,182,183],{},[11,184,185,188],{},[18,186,187],{},"🗺️ Diagram placeholder:"," Schematic of the three parcels above on the DLS grid with the AB-SK meridian boundary clearly drawn. Each parcel coloured by dominant soil order (Black Chernozem, Solonetzic Black Chernozem, SK soil class), with filter-chip readouts (drainage \u002F slope \u002F salinity) annotated beside each quarter section.",[28,190,192],{"id":191},"what-moved-and-why","What moved, and why",[11,194,195,196,200,201,205],{},"The agriculture catalog shrank from ten entries to eight. The new order is summaries → soils → capability → land administration, which matches the order an agronomist actually reads: AAFC crop summary and the ",[176,197,199],{"href":198},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Flsrs-soil-productivity-score","LSRS productivity score"," first, then soil survey for drainage and salinity, then ",[176,202,204],{"href":203},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Ffind-best-farmland-by-lsrs","Ag Capability",", then ALR and treaty overlays.",[11,207,208,209,212],{},"Two entries disappeared into the unified Soil Survey toggle (SK Soils and BC Soil Survey both rolled in). ",[18,210,211],{},"BC Wetlands moved out of agriculture and into the Natural category",", beside AB Wetlands. Both wetland datasets now sit together where an environmental consultant expects them — they were never really agriculture layers, but the panel had them stranded on the wrong side of the catalog.",[28,214,216],{"id":215},"who-this-is-built-for","Who this is built for",[36,218,219,240,250,259],{},[39,220,221,224,225,229,230,234,235,239],{},[18,222,223],{},"Agronomists"," comparing soils across an AB-SK or AB-BC client portfolio without leaving the map. Pair the layer with ",[176,226,228],{"href":227},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Fchernozemic-soils-explained","Chernozemic",", ",[176,231,233],{"href":232},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Fsolonetzic-soils-explained","Solonetzic",", and ",[176,236,238],{"href":237},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Fluvisolic-soils-explained","Luvisolic"," reading guides to read polygons in seconds.",[39,241,242,245,246,249],{},[18,243,244],{},"Farmland buyers and investors"," screening multi-province acquisition pipelines. Drainage and salinity chips are blunt first-pass filters; the ",[176,247,248],{"href":203},"LSRS productivity overlay"," goes deeper per quarter.",[39,251,252,255,256,258],{},[18,253,254],{},"Crop insurance adjusters (AFSC, SCIC)"," triaging claim events across the border — the ",[79,257,81],{}," buckets prevent false-confidence calls on parcels where the survey simply does not carry the attribute.",[39,260,261,264],{},[18,262,263],{},"Environmental consultants"," scoping wetland and soil exposure on multi-province assessments.",[108,266,267],{},[11,268,269,271],{},[18,270,114],{}," Parcel report panel for SE-1-48-1-W4 showing the Soil Survey card with drainage, slope, and salinity fields populated from AGRASID. Highlight the source attribution line. 1200x800.",[28,273,275],{"id":274},"how-to-access","How to access",[11,277,278,279,285,286,290],{},"The Soil Survey layer is in the map layers panel at ",[176,280,284],{"href":281,"rel":282},"https:\u002F\u002Fapp.townshipcanada.com",[283],"nofollow","app.townshipcanada.com",", inside the agriculture category. It is part of the ",[176,287,289],{"href":288},"\u002Fblog\u002Fintroducing-ag-bundle","Agriculture Bundle"," on the Business tier — which turns on the soil, crop, LSRS, and parcel-report stack across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.",[11,292,293,294,296],{},"Toggle the layer on, pick your provinces, narrow with the drainage \u002F slope \u002F salinity chips, and the map redraws against the tile-joined ",[23,295,25],{}," archive in a single render. The same data flows through the parcel report card for every quarter section that has a covering polygon. Manitoba lands in the same archive once its provincial soil survey is normalized; until then, the unified Soil Survey map for western Canada agriculture covers AB, SK, and BC and stops at the Manitoba border.",[28,298,300],{"id":299},"related","Related",[36,302,303,308,314,319,324],{},[39,304,305],{},[176,306,307],{"href":288},"Introducing the Agriculture Bundle",[39,309,310],{},[176,311,313],{"href":312},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Fsoil-landscapes-canada-vs-lsrs","Soil Landscapes of Canada vs LSRS",[39,315,316],{},[176,317,318],{"href":227},"Chernozemic Soils explained",[39,320,321],{},[176,322,323],{"href":232},"Solonetzic Soils explained",[39,325,326],{},[176,327,329],{"href":328},"\u002Flearn\u002Fhow-to\u002Ffarmland-due-diligence-soil-and-crop","Farmland Due Diligence: Soil and Crop",{"title":331,"searchDepth":332,"depth":332,"links":333},"",2,[334,335,336,337,338,339,340],{"id":30,"depth":332,"text":31},{"id":62,"depth":332,"text":63},{"id":121,"depth":332,"text":122},{"id":191,"depth":332,"text":192},{"id":215,"depth":332,"text":216},{"id":274,"depth":332,"text":275},{"id":299,"depth":332,"text":300},"product","https:\u002F\u002Fb9bukyyl5yuyveqq.public.blob.vercel-storage.com\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002F2026-06\u002Fbe0f1979-0076-45f1-a9d0-c9f04ecf8b4f.jpeg","2026-06-10","Township Canada now shows a unified soil survey map for western Canada agriculture — AB AGRASID, SK soils, and BC soil survey in one toggle, with drainage, slope, and salinity filter chips.","md",{"hero_image":342},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Funified-soil-survey-layer-western-canada",{"title":5,"description":344},"blog\u002Funified-soil-survey-layer-western-canada",[289,352,353,354,355],"Soil Survey","AGRASID","Feature Update","Western Canada","g0Zx0Sve-hjd4vcM2JL5cA8zXtaNQsLrs-1MKjEvNR0"]