Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database for Van Buren County, Michigan 20131219. Table: mapunitSoil Data Access (SDA) Prime and other Important Farmlands

Road Ownership Layer Attributes DescriptionsFederal Aid Status:

Determines if the road is able to use the Federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funding source. STP is allocated through an MPO, RTF, or small urban program. In Berrien, Cass and Van Buren Counties, the SWMPC manages all of these programs, except for areas within the KATS MPO.

Urban/Rural

Urbanized: A census Designated area with a population of 50,000 or more. All urbanized areas are part of an MPO.

Small Urban – A census defined area with a population between 5,000 and 49,999.

Rural: Any area outside a small urban or urbanized area. Includes cities and villages with a population less than 5,000. Areas within an MPO planning area which are still outside the designated urbanized area are eligible for both MPO and rural funding sources. STP funding in rural areas is distributed through the Rural Task Force.

Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)–

An MPO is a federally designated organization which conducts regional transportation planning for urbanized areas with a population of 50,000 or more. The MPO Planning Area covers the entire urbanized area as well as areas which are expected to become urbanized in the next 20 years. For TwinCATS and NATS the boundary includes the entire jurisdiction for jurisdictions that contain urbanized areas. All federal or state funded transportation projects in an MPO must be included in the MPO’s Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) to receive approval.

There are 3 MPOs which have planning areas within Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren Counties

TwinCATS: Twin Cities Area Transportation Study NATS: Niles Buchan Cass Area Transportation Study KATS: Kalamazoo Area Transportation Study

The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission (SWMPC) staffs the TwinCATS and NATS MPOs.

Act 51 Category

Michigan Public Act 51 governs the distribution of state collected fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees. The Act51 category, also call the ‘legal system’, are set based on which agency is in charge of road maintenance and is used in the road funding formula among other factors. Roads which are not Act51 certified are not eligible to use revenue from the state.

State Trunkline is maintained by MDOT

County Primary and County Local roads are maintained by the County Road Commission

City Major and City Minor roads are maintained by the City or Village the road is located in

National Functional Classification (NFC)

Categories the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) uses to classify roads. This determines federal aid status.

Planned non-motorized facilities in a 7 county region of Southwest Michigan. Planned facilities cover the counties of Berrien, Van Buren, Cass, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Barry, and Calhoun. Classes of the facilities are; on road, off road, undetermined, or water. The planned facilities are being developed from a variety of sources, including local master plans, public input meetings, and governmental staff and officials. Many of the planned facilities are conceptual and were derived without recognizing possible restrictions.

This data set was derived from the 1981 publication of the Hydrological Atlas of Michigan plate 26. Three plates of the Aquifer Characteristics of Glacial Drift map were scanned, geo-rectified and used as a backdrop in the digitizing of this polygon vector file.Aquifer Characteristics of the Glacial Drift map for Michigan was developed from the 1:500,000 maps of the Surface Formations of the Northern and Southern Peninsulas of Michigan (Martin, 1955). Four major aquifer units were defined for the glacial drift, and one unit (unit III) was subdivided into two sub-units for the Southern Peninsula (see explanation).The Northern Peninsula portion of the Aquifer Characteristics map was prepared from glacial drift and/or ground-water availability maps in County Progress Reports, and a Seafarer Site Survey (see References). The mapped surface formations presented in these reports were reinterpreted and assigned to the four major aquifer nits established for this map.The Southern Peninsula portion of the Aquifer Characteristics map is based on a reinterpretation of the units delineated on the Surface Formations of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Martin, 1955), Landform Units in Northeastern Lower Michigan (Burgis, 1977), and Aquifer Vulnerability to Surface Contamination in Michigan (Dept. of Public Health, 1980). In addition, water well records were examined to determine the relationship between the drift stratigraphy and the four major aquifer units used for this map. The analysis of well records was done initially for type areas of clearly distinguished surface glacial deposits. After it was established that a general correlation exists, approximately 39,300 water and oil and gas well records were examined, with particular attention to those which penetrated thick sections of drift. Well records from all townships on 10 east-west transects and one north-south transect were inspected: Townships 5S, 1N, 5N, 10N, 14N, 20N, 24N, 32N, and 37N, and 4W. In addition, Ionia, Clinton, Van Buren, Cass, Sanilac, St. Clair, Alpena, Macomb, Bay, Monroe, Ottawa and Muskegon Counties were checked in more detail. Finally selected deep wells and oil and gas wells with detailed records of the drift were examined to determine the characteristics of the drift at depth. In general, the drift below the typical depths of wells was found to have characteristics similar to the shallower drift. Locally, as in Ottawa and Muskegon Counties and in a broad area of south-central Michigan, parts of Barry, Clinton, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Oakland, Shiawassee, Genesee, Lapeer, Sanilac and Tuscola Counties, small discontinuous areas exist where the deeper drift is not an aquifer. Aquifer CharacteristicsExplanationIVDrift may be an unconfined aquifer to bedrockNot possible to delineate from available dataIII ADrift usually unconfined at or near the surface, generally consists of interbedded aquifers, aquicludes, and aquitards at depthIII BDrift may or may not be an aquifer at or near the surface. Drift generally consists of interbedded aquifers, aquicludes, and aquitards at dethhs Aquifer characteristics generally conform to category III, but drift may not be an aquifer in small discontinuous areas.IIDrift generally not an aquifer, may include thin interbedded aquifers at depthIThin drift (0-30 feet) overlying bedrock For questions on this data please reach out to Mark Snow at SnowM@Michigan.gov