SPDSS_Task89-2_CropLandUseClassificationProcedures_20060929

• Title: SPDSS Task 89.2 - Crop and Land Use Classification Procedures for Year 2001
• Description: This memorandum describes the activities conducted under Task 89: ‘Mapping of Irrigated Land Use and Irrigated Parcel Boundaries’ for year 2001 and complements the SPDSS Memoranda for Task 89.1 and Task 90.2. This memorandum also provides details on the methods used to conduct a number of Task 89 activities, including Task 89.3: Determine Irrigated Vs. Non-irrigated Lands, Task 89.4: Identify Crop Types In Each Polygon, Task 89.5: Review, Revision and Final Classification, and Task 89.6: Conduct Accuracy Assessment, as well as the results obtained from these activities for year 2001.
• Decision Support - Doc Type: Task Memorandum
• Date: 9/29/2006
• DSS Category: GIS
• DSS: South Platte
• Basin: South Platte
• Contract/PO #: C153960
• Grant Type: Non-Reimbursable
• Bill Number: SB01-157, HB02-1152, SB03-110, HB04-1221, SB05-084, HB06-1313, SB07-122
• Prepared By: Riverside Technology inc.

MEMO 89.2
Table 3. FSA Data Collection Activities in the SPDSS Area

FSA Office Counties
Served by FSA
Office
Collection Date
Number of Reference Parcels
Collected
Steamboat Springs Jackson October 1, 2003 30
No FSA Office Gilpin N/A N/A
No FSA Office Clear Creek N/A N/A
Park
Colorado Springs Teller September 9, 2003 20
El Paso
Fort Collins Larimer February 27 and October
21, 2003 228
L Boulder A
8
2003 51
ongmont Jefferson ,
ugust
Greeley Weld July 15 and 16, 2003 385
Fort Morgan Morgan August 20, 2003 101
Sterling Logan August 6 and 7, 2003 168
Julesburg Sedgwick August 7, 2003 70
B
i
h Adams l
30
2003
J 109
r
g
ton Denver y
,
u
B ers Ara ahoe Se tember 9, 2003 28
Si
l Dou las 10
2003
S
b 30
m
a Elbert eptem
er
,
Akron Washin on Au st 20, 2003 69
Total 1289
In general, data collection activities at local FSA offices were conducted in the following steps:
a) Initial meeting with the director of the FSA office. RTi personnel explained the purpose of
SPDSS, described the nature of the information needed and data selection methods. FSA office
directors made introductions to other FSA personnel and described the layout of the facilities, in
particular, the location and organization of farmer records and access to the photocopy machine.
b) Familiarization with sample area. FSA personnel were requested to describe the general
distribution and proportion of irrigated lands and crop types in their corresponding area of influence.
This information annotated on maps provided by RTi, provided an overall view of the agricultural
activities in the area and was used to ensure a good distribution of the sample in conjunction with the
Colorado agricultural statistics.
c) Sample Selection. Initially, farmer records were selected on a systematic basis. For example, the
first 100 records in the file cabinet were selected in alphabetical order, followed by the 100 records
located in the middle, and the 100 records located at the end of the file. However, this selection
method did not always provide useful information because not all selected farmer records contained
data for the year 2001. Also, QA/QC procedures conducted as part of the development of the
reference shapefile (described below in paragraph e), showed errors in some farmer records (e.g., a
parcel declared as corn was in fact bare soil). Further investigation revealed the existence of a list of
records verified in the field each year by FSA personnel. This list represents approximately 10
percent of records in a particular FSA office, selected randomly using a computer program specially
developed for that purpose. Therefore, all subsequent sample selection activities were conducted
using the list of verified parcels. This improved the quality of the reference data collected from FSA.
Similarly, RTi requested FSA personnel to perform database queries of crop types that were difficult
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