Products are produced
for both internal and external (general public) use. In 1998, map-type products
were produced for internal Agency distribution based on geo-referenced
Monthly Agricultural Yield Survey data at the county level, and Weekly Crop
Progress and Condition Survey data. These maps are kept internal due to
the administratively confidential nature of the individual survey responses
and to protect any pre-release of aggregated survey information. An example
of county and weekly growing degree information can be seen
here
,this information was based upon data received from the Midwestern Climate
Center for major corn states.
For 1999, the map products
based on survey data will continue to be generated for internal Agency use.
The 1999 growing season will be updated on a weekly basis to allow for a
visual year-to-year comparison. Feedback on the 1998 version will be sought
from crop statisticians in Washington, D. C., and in the field offices.
As a result of reviewing
the internally used version, a public version for 2000 that protects the
confidentiality of individual farmer reported data and pre-release of survey
data will likely be developed and be mapped at the Agricultural Statistical
District (about 10 counties) level.
For external distribution,
county estimate
maps were produced for the 1998 crop season and were placed on the Internet
for public access. These include planted acreage, harvested acreage, yield
and production for major US crops. County estimate maps for the 1999 crop
season will be placed on the Internet for public access as they are available
in early 2000.
Special requests
for spatial products based on or related to NASS data will be managed as
they appear; these include reaction to natural disasters, improved spatial
graphics in publications, and spatial organization of survey data. New data
base layers will be continually explored including such data as soil characteristics
and watershed boundaries which can be used to enhance currently available
agency data. New spatial products will be developed and distributed.
Based on an expressed
Agency interest in an address based geocoding software engine, an initial
search for an appropriate engine has begun for a test pilot of one state.
Attempting to apply geocoding software and related data files to the list
sampling frame of one pilot state would give NASS some insight into the
worth of geocoding the list frame. Geographic coordinates can be obtained
by various methods which include direct management with GPS devices, matching
to external sources of data files containing geographic coordinates, and
geocoding or assigning location coordinates based on information contained
in each record. Each method is associated with a different level of accuracy
and cost, and the relevance of the levels must be determined.
