THE UTILITY OF SOIL SURVEYS TO ASSESS FLOODPLAIN SEDIMENT STORAGE IN SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA.

How useful are county soil surveys for estimating floodplain storage in fluvial sediment budgets? This paper compares data about accelerated sedimentation collected from field corings with information derived from three county soil surveys in southeastern Minnesota. Two soil surveys proved to be unsatisfactory data sources about historical alluvium, but another survey was a more accurate source for one drainage basin. Even tins third soil survey would require calibration for use in a geographic information system, because it was only the survey's maximum estimate that agreed with the field data.