soilDB 2.7.0

soilDB 2.7.0 (2022-05-18)

• Spatial
  • Dropped imports from sp and raster which means soilDB no longer requires the soon-to-retire rgdal package.
  • All spatial data processing has been moved to sf and terra, which have been added to Suggests.
    • (breaking change) Classes from these packages (e.g. sf, SpatRaster) will be returned by default rather than Spatial*DataFrame or RasterLayer from sp and raster.
    • (breaking change) Spatial functions that take spatial input will return the same class type as the input unless otherwise specified.
      • fetchSDA_spatial() and SDA_spatialQuery() gain as_Spatial argument; when TRUE equivalent (backward compatible) sp and raster data types are returned.
      • Alternately, you may set options(soilDB.return_Spatial=TRUE)
  • mukey.wcs() and ISSR800.wcs() bug fix for some instances where the target extent was miscalculated, resulting in slight differences from requested resolution (res argument) of result.
  • mukey.wcs() gains a new possible data source db="RSS" which accesses a Web Coverage Service containing grids from Raster Soil Surveys in the United States.
  • See: #229 for more details on what has changed.
• NASIS
  • (breaking change) rmHzErrors argument now defaults to FALSE. Please let us know if allowing horizon errors results in unexpected behavior so we can repair various interfaces that rely on no errors being present. See aqp::checkHzDepthLogic() for more information on the types of things that used to result in profiles being removed from results and for guidelines on how to fix.
  • Added several new columns from the plotplantinventory table to get_vegplot_species_from_NASIS_db() result; thanks to Zachary Van Abbema for suggestion and feedback
  • Local NASIS metadata used for uncode() are now cached within an R session which results in faster query processing times for users with a local NASIS database connection set up.
    • The db argument to uncode() has been deprecated. Now, code() and uncode() can use ChoiceName and/or ChoiceLabel in coding and decoding ChoiceValue for all data sources.
  • Rock fragment and artifact sieving now uses <76mm as the upper boundary for gravel fraction, and a related QC message has been removed
• SSURGO / Soil Data Access
  • Added get_SDA_cosurfmorph(): a new function in "SSURGO On Demand" style. Users can customize the WHERE clause, target tables and the grouping variable used to calculate proportions (default by="compname")
    • "cosurfmorphgc" summarizes "geomposmntn", "geomposhill", "geomposflats", "geompostrce"
    • "cosurfmorphhpp" summarizes "hillslopeprof"
    • "cosurfmorphss" summarizes "shapeacross", "shapedown", and concatenated "surfaceshape"
  • Several fixes for logic of get_SDA_property() with method="weighted average" and include_minors=TRUE/miscellaneous_areas=TRUE, thanks to Andy Paolucci and Dylan Beaudette for testing and providing feedback on the queries.
  • All get_SDA_*() methods (except get_SDA_metrics()) now support input of custom WHERE clause in lieu of mukeys/areasymbols arguments and gain a dsn argument for specifying a local SQLite database or DBIConnection.
  • Added downloadSSURGO() for downloading/extraction of the SSURGO data by survey area from Web Soil Survey.
  • Added createSSURGO() for building of local databases as SQLite/Geopackage from one or more SSURGO exports.
    • Exports can be obtained via downloadSSURGO(), from NASIS or downloaded from other sources such as https://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/GDGHome_DirectDownLoad.aspx.

What's Changed

• Use terra/sf to replace raster/sp/rgdal by @brownag in #229
• Add get_SDA_cosurfmorph() by @brownag in #245
• downloadSSURGO & createSSURGO: download WSS ZIP archives by soil survey area and create local databases (SQLite/SpatiaLite/Geopackage) by @brownag in #244
• Add get_SSURGO_utils.R by @brownag in #247
• get_SDA_*(): Local SDA-style queries by @brownag in #246

Full Changelog: 2.6.15...2.7.0