National Resources Inventory

Jeff GoebelResource Inventory DivisionUSDA-NRCS, Beltsville, MD

Acronyms

NRI = National Resources Inventory

CEAP = Conservation Effects Assessment Project

NASS = National Agricultural Statistics Service

National Resources Inventory

•Longitudinal statistical survey

•Sample-based, not census

•Measures natural resource status, conditions,

trends

• Non-Federal land• 1.5 billion acres [600,000,000 ha]

• Annual data collection• 200,000 sample points every year

• Subsample of 800,000 total NRI sites

• Results released every 5 years

National Resources Inventory

National Resources InventoryNRI Sampling Units—

Segment and 3 internal points

Segment is a square tract of land;

About 105 – 110 acres in Mid-Atlantic

Typically half-mile by half-mile in Midwest

NRI-CEAP Cropland surveys• Sample sites were fields associated

with a subsample of NRI sample points [classified as “cultivated cropland”]

• Conducted 2003 – 2006 nationally

• USDA-NASS field staff conducted farmer interviews

• Data from farmer interviews plus regular NRI data = input into the “process models” used to generate estimates of sediment & chemical transport, etc.

National Resources Inventory

National Resources Inventory

• NRI Conservation Tillage and Nutrient Management Survey

– To become annual part of the NRI survey program

– Quite similar to the data collection efforts for the original “NRI-CEAP Cropland Farmer Surveys”

– Pilot Project -- to be conducted in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed this year

National Resources Inventory

Pilot Project

Data to be collected starting late 2011 by USDA-NASS enumerators

Sample of 1,500 NRI sites selected by Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (Iowa State University)

Will include the 735 sample fields that were part of 2003 – 2006 survey

National Resources Inventory

Pilot Project Survey instrument (questionnaire) will

be similar to that used earlier• Farming operations, etc. for 2009, 2010,

and 2011• Some additions, deletions, modifications• Must be approved by OMB

Concerns• Locating operator or correct respondent• “Respondent burden”

Distribution of 4 Major Land Cover/Uses

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