Stream, Ditch or Canal as an Irrigation Source on Agricultural Land in the Conterminous United States, 1992: National Resource Inventory Conservation Practice ISO03
Description
This data set represents the estimated percentage of the 1-km grid cell that is covered by or
subject to the agricultural conservation practice (CPIS03), Stream, Ditch or Canal as an
Irrigation Source (SDCIS) on agricultural land by county. Stream, Ditch or Canal as an I
rrigation Source is described as: "Stream : A flow of water in a channel or bed, as a brook,
rivulet, or small river. Ditch : A long, narrow trench or furrow dug in the ground, as for irrigation.
Canal : An artificial waterway used for irrigation." (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1995)
This data set was created with geographic information systems (GIS) and database
management tools. The acres on which SDCIS's are applied were totaled at the county
level in the tabular NRI database and then apportioned to a raster coverage of agricultural
land within the county based on the Enhanced National Land Cover Dataset (NLCDe)
1-kilometer resolution land cover grids (Nakagaki, 2003). Federal land is not considered
in this analysis because NRI does not record information on those lands.