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USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Cropland Data Layer for the United States

Entry ID: USDA_NASS_CROPLAND

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Summary

Abstract: The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a raster, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover data layer with a ground resolution of 30 meters. The CDL is produced using satellite imagery from the Indian Remote Sensing RESOURCESAT-1 (IRS-P6) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) collected during the current growing season. Some Cropland Data Layer states used Landsat 5 TM and/or Landsat 7 ETM+ ...

Purpose: The purpose of the Cropland Data Layer Program is to use satellite imagery to (1) provide acreage estimates to the Agricultural Statistics Board for the state's major commodities and (2) produce digital, crop-specific, categorized geo-referenced output products.

Related URL

Link: GET DATA

Description: Download the Cropland Data Layer for the United States.

Link: GET DATA

Description: Cropland Data Layer for the United States is also available on CD-ROM and/or DVD.

Link: GET DATA

Description: The Cropland Data Layer for the United States is also available free for download through the Geospatial Data Gateway.

Link: VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Description: Methodology for the Cropland Data Layer for the United States.

Geographic Coverage

(Click for Interactive Map)

Spatial coordinates

N: 74.0

S: 22.0

E: -46.0

W: -170.0

Data Set Citation

Dataset Originator/Creator: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Research and Development Division (RDD), Geospatial Information Branch (GIB), Spatial Analysis Research Section (SARS)

Dataset Title: USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Cropland Data Layer for the United States

Dataset Release Date: 2011-01-10

Dataset Release Place: USDA, NASS Marketing and Information Services Office, Washington, D.C.

Dataset Publisher: USDA, NASS

Version: 2011

Online Resource: http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/Cropland/SARS1a.htm

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 2010-01-01

Stop Date: 2010-12-31

Location Keywords

CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Data Resolution

Latitude Resolution: 30m
Longitude Resolution: 30m
Horizontal Resolution Range: 30 meters - < 100 meters

Science Keywords

BIOSPHERE > TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS > AGRICULTURAL LANDS

LAND SURFACE > LAND USE/LAND COVER > LAND COVER

ISO Topic Category

FARMING

BIOTA

GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION

IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER

Platform

LANDSAT-5

TERRA > Earth Observing System, TERRA (AM-1)

AQUA > Earth Observing System, AQUA

Instrument

MODIS > Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

AWIFS > Advanced Wide Field Sensor

Quality The strength and emphasis of the CDL is crop-specific land cover categories. The accuracy of the CDL non-agricultural land cover classes is entirely dependent upon the USGS, National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD 2001). Thus, the USDA, NASS recommends that users consider the NLCD for studies involving non-agricultural land cover.

The official DVD contains additional accuracy ... assessment information that is not available through the Geospatial Data Gateway in the form of an associated confidence layer. The following description of the confidence layer is taken from the document entitled 'MDA_NLCD_User_Guide.doc' which is available free for download with the NLCD Mapping Tool at http://www.mrlc.gov/. The Confidence Layer "spatially represents the predicted confidence that is associated with that output pixel, based upon the rule(s) that were used to classify it. This is useful in that the user can see the spatial representation of distribution and magnitude of error or confidence for a given classification... This error layer represents a percent confidence associated with each rule and output categorical, classified value. It is expressed as a percentage of confidence. A value of zero would therefore have a low confidence (always wrong), while a value of 100 would have a very high confidence (always right)." For more information on the use of confidence layers please refer to the following paper: Liu, Weiguo, Sucharita Gopal and Curtis E. Woodcock, 2004. Uncertainty and confidence in land cover classification using a hybrid classifier approach, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 70(8):963-971. Ultimately, however, the confidence value is not a measure of accuracy for a given pixel but rather a how well it fit within the decision tree ruleset.

These definitions of accuracy statistics were derived from the following book: Congalton, Russell G. and Kass Green. Assessing the Accuracy of Remotely Sensed Data: Principles and Practices. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Inc. 1999. The 'Producer's Accuracy' is calculated for each cover type in the ground truth and indicates the probability that a ground truth pixel will be correctly mapped (across all cover types) and measures 'errors of omission'. An 'Omission Error' occurs when a pixel is excluded from the category to which it belongs in the validation dataset. The 'User's Accuracy' indicates the probability that a pixel from the CDL classification actually matches the ground truth data and measures 'errors of commission'. The 'Commission Error' represent when a pixel is included in an incorrect category according to the validation data. It is important to take into consideration errors of omission and commission. For example, if you classify every pixel in a scene to 'wheat', then you have 100% Producer's Accuracy for the wheat category and 0% Omission Error. However, you would also have a very high error of commission as all other crop types would be included in the incorrect category. The 'Kappa' is a measure of agreement based on the difference between the actual agreement in the error matrix (i.e., the agreement between the remotely sensed classification and the reference data as indicated by the major diagonal) and the chance agreement which is indicated by the row and column totals. The 'Conditional Kappa Coefficient' is the agreement for an individual category within the entire error matrix.

Access Constraints None

Use Constraints The USDA, NASS Cropland Data Layer is provided to the public as is and is considered public domain and free to redistribute. The USDA, NASS does not warrant any conclusions drawn from these data. If the user does not have software capable of viewing GEOTIF (.tif) or ERDAS Imagine (.img) file formats then we suggest using the freeware browser ESRI ArcGIS Explorer http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/.

Ancillary Keywords

crop cover

cropland

Data Set Progress

COMPLETE

Data Center

National Agricultural Statistics Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture

Data Center URL: http://www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp

Data Center Personnel
Name: NASS USDA/ERS Phone: 1-800-999-6779 Fax: 1-703-834-0110 Email: nass at nass.usda.gov Contact Address: USDA ERS-NASS 341 Victory Drive City: Herndon Province or State: VA Postal Code: 22070 Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: Online

Fees: No fees

Personnel

USDA, NASS, SPATIAL ANALYSIS RESEARCH SECTION

Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT

Phone: 703-877-8000

Email: HQ_RDD_GIB at nass.usda.gov

Contact Address:

3251 Old Lee Highway, Room 305

City: Fairfax

Province or State: VA

Postal Code: 22030-1504

Country: USA

TYLER B. STEVENS

Role: DIF AUTHOR

Phone: (301) 614-6898

Fax: 301-614-5268

Email: Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov

Contact Address:

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Global Change Master Directory

City: Greenbelt

Province or State: MD

Postal Code: 20771

Country: USA

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2010-06-07

Last DIF Revision Date: 2011-04-22

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