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Geography of Detroit area

The question came from Ryan Anderson via Matt Piper. His e-mail is ryaneanderson@gmail.com; phone is (202) 378-3474.

The question:

Matt -

Hey, it was great running into you this weekend, hope the rest of your night went well. Like we discussed, I have a few questions about Detroit geography that I hope you guys might be able to help me answer. One of the many joys of urban agriculture is trying to find this information for land that hasn't historically been used for farming. For all of these questions, the more granular the data, the better. But of course anything would be better than nothing. Each of these metrics vary depending on location, so getting down to the neighborhood- or even block-level would be really great.

1. Depth of the water table 2. Depth of the bedrock 3. Depth of topsoil 4. Soil composition

Anything you guys could put together would be really helpful.

Thanks! Ryan

Ryan,

Always wonderful to see you!

I've been so looking forward to receiving this email. We're on it. First, let me clarify: you're looking for this info for the whole city? Are there particular parts of town that you'd be more or less interested in, in case a broad data set is unavailable, or do you plan to use the data to determine the best possible locations for the farm?

Thanks & all best, MP

Oh right, yes, so .... Our primary focus has been on the area bordered 75, 94, and the Jeffries Frwy west of Rosa Parks. I'm also curious about the area on the East Side from St. Aubin's to East Grand, Warren down to E. Vernor. Info on the whole city would be great though, as it might lead us to explore other possibilities.

Ryan