Texas Soil Screening Map
Check hydrologic soil groups and hydric soils for any Texas address, coordinates, or site boundary.
Screening only — not a soil investigation or a wetland delineation. Read the disclaimer.
Zipped shapefile (.shp, .shx, .dbf, and .prj), GeoJSON, or KML, up to 2,000 acres. Your file is read in your browser. Only a rectangle around the boundary is sent to the NRCS soil service; HERO E&C does not receive or store your file.
Click the map to add corners. Click the first corner or press Finish boundary to close. Backspace removes the last corner; Esc cancels.
You can also click any point on the map. Zoom in to see soil groups. Click the map, then scroll to zoom, or hold Ctrl and scroll; click outside the map to scroll the page. On a phone, use two fingers.
Results
Search an address, enter coordinates, upload or draw a boundary, or click the map. Results appear here with their sources and survey dates.
How to read the results
- Hydrologic soil group (HSG)
- NRCS sorts soils into four groups by how fast water soaks in when the soil is wet: A (fastest, lowest runoff) to D (slowest, most runoff). Drainage designs use the group to pick curve numbers or infiltration losses.
- Dual groups (A/D, B/D, C/D)
- The first letter applies if the site is adequately drained; the second applies in the natural, undrained condition. Only soils that are group D in their natural state get a dual group. Which letter to use is a design judgment, and some local manuals set a rule.
- Dominant condition
- A soil map unit is a mix of soils (components). The tool shows the rating shared by the largest combined share of components — the same rating Web Soil Survey shows by default. Open “Components” to see each soil.
- Drainage class
- How quickly water leaves the soil under natural conditions, from excessively drained to very poorly drained.
- Hydric soil (%)
- The share of the map unit made of soils that formed under saturation. Hydric soil is one of three wetland criteria, with wetland plants and wetland hydrology. It is not a wetland delineation; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides jurisdictional wetlands.
- Water table and bedrock
- The shallowest depth NRCS reports for the map unit, in centimeters and feet. “None reported” usually means none within the described soil profile, about 200 cm (6.6 ft).
- Flooding and ponding
- NRCS soil properties that describe how often the soil floods or ponds. They are not FEMA flood zones; use the Texas Flood Screening Map for those.
- Boundary results
- For an uploaded or drawn boundary, the tool reports acres and percent by soil group and by map unit. You can copy each table into a spreadsheet or a curve-number worksheet. The tool does not assign curve numbers.
- Download data
- For a boundary, Map units (CSV) lists each soil map unit with its SSURGO fields (hydgrpdcd is the hydrologic soil group) and acres, and Map unit polygons (GeoJSON) holds the NRCS polygons clipped to the boundary, in WGS 84 longitude and latitude, for QGIS, ArcGIS Pro or CAD. The files are made in your browser; each one states its source and that it is a screening.
Known gaps
- Soil surveys are mapped at about 1:12,000 to 1:24,000. Small areas of different soil are not shown, and map unit lines are approximate. Zooming in does not add detail.
- A map unit is a mix of soils, so the dominant-condition group may not match the soil at one spot. Check the components, and confirm with site testing.
- Some areas have no detailed soil survey (for example, parts of some military lands), and urban land, water, and pits are often not rated.
- NRCS updates soil data once a year, around October 1. Survey versions differ by area; each result shows its version.
- Curve numbers, infiltration rates, and engineering properties such as plasticity and shrink-swell are not shown.
- The NRCS service may not respond during its nightly update, roughly midnight to 3 a.m. Central.
- Address search can place a point on the wrong side of a street. Check the marker, and click the correct spot on the map if needed.
- KMZ files are not supported yet; save the boundary as KML or GeoJSON.
- Opportunity pins mark the city or county named in the notice, not the project site; listings without a city or county have no pin.
Disclaimer
Informational screening only. This tool displays public soil survey data from the USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), queried through NRCS Soil Data Access at the time shown, and U.S. Census Bureau address search. Soil survey maps are not designed for use as a primary regulatory tool in permitting or siting decisions, and they do not replace on-site sampling, testing, or a geotechnical investigation. Results are not a soil investigation, a wetland delineation, or a sealed engineering document, and they have not been reviewed by a licensed professional for your property. Do not use them for design, construction, bidding, or permitting.
Local drainage criteria decide which soil group and curve numbers a design uses. Confirm soil data in NRCS Web Soil Survey and with the reviewing engineer for your city or county.
Using this tool does not create an engineer–client relationship. Files you upload are read in your browser; only the address you enter and the site location or a rectangle around the boundary are sent to the public services listed above to run the search. HERO E&C does not receive or store your searches or files. HERO E&C · TBPELS Firm F-27793.
Data sources
| Layer | Source | Currency |
|---|---|---|
| Soil map units, soil groups, soil properties | USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (public domain) | Queried live; each result shows its survey area version. NRCS refreshes the data each year around October 1 |
| Soil map unit lines | NRCS Soil Data Access web map service | As served by NRCS |
| Basemaps | USGS The National Map (public domain) | As served by USGS |
| Address search | U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder | Current address ranges |
| Texas outline | U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb (public domain); outline simplified | Fetched Oct 2026 |
| Teaming opportunities | HERO E&C Teaming & Opportunities (/teaming/) and Construction Teaming (/construction/) listings | Updated with each listing review; pins at the city or county named in the notice |
Map software: ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript. Powered by Esri. Check any result in NRCS Web Soil Survey.
Need more than a screening?
HERO E&C prepares drainage and floodplain studies, HEC-HMS / HEC-RAS models, and development permit applications across Texas.