DATA DETAILS > LAND USE

The feature classes below are stored in the project database within the "landuse" feature dataset.  Recommended Uses: reference layers on maps; use as geoprocessing inputs for additional spatial analysis.  
Land use was classified into 11 described below.  In addition, several other observations (e.g. irrigation) were recorded.

Land Use Categories

  • Developed: Residential yards, driveways, farm buildings, and bare areas within crop fields to store farm machinery.  
  • Transportation: Roads. Excludes farm lanes (roads within crop fields). 
  • Cropland: Regular shaped fields, either rectangular or circular; Regularly spaced tillage lines; Bare soil with signs of tillage.
  • Orchard: Regular patch shapes.  Trees are regularly spaced.
  • Pasture: Domesticated; Fertilized; Irrigated; Richer than surrounding land; Homogenous vegetative cover.
  • Grassland/Rangeland: Not maintained; Irregular shaped patches; Uneven vegetative cover (shrubs, trees, grass, and bare soil); May follow course of streams and hillsides; Crop fields that have reverted to natural vegetation (faint till lines visible); Allows for inclusions of up to 40% bare soil..
  • Forest: Forest stands with greater than 60% tree density.
  • Forested Grassland/Rangeland: Forest stands with 10% - 60% tree density; Individual trees/tree stands are within 30 m of each other.
  • Shelterbelt: A row of trees between crop fields (used to control wind erosion).
  • Waterbody: A stream or pond greater than 30 m across.
  • Non-Forested Wetland: Previous shorelines sometimes visible; Shorelines fluctuate over time; Saturated, low-lying area within a crop field.
Browse Visual Examples

Additional Land Use Characteristics

  • Successional: Land that is changing from one use to another, such as cropland that is reverting back to grassland. 
  • Hatching: A geometric pattern that is characteristic of hay and winter wheat.  It can be identified by a pattern of concentric rectangles with lines running from the corners of the field to the middle. 
  • Irrigated: There are two main types of irrigation, center-pivot and canals/ditches.  It is easiest to identify irrigated land if it is a circular center-pivot field.
  • Field Outside Grid: When the boundary of a crop field or pasture extends outside the boundaries of the sample grid.

Coded Values

Most attributes in the land use data are set up as coded-domains, which ensure data quality and consistency.  Coded-domains appear as drop-down lists when the feature class attribute tables are viewed using Esri's ArcGIS Desktop software.  When exported into another format (e.g. a shapefile or csv file), the drop-down functionality is lost; all attributes with coded-domains will display a code instead of the corresponding text description.

Land Use Coded Values

The numeric values for land use are very similar to those used in the Anderson Land Use and Landcover Classification System.

Other Coded Values

Y = Yes; N = No. 

Related attributes: Uncertain, Field_outside_grid, Irrigated, Hatching, Successional
PI = Poor Imagery; DD = Difficult to Distinguish; 
O = Other.  

Related attributes: Why_uncertain

Land Use Feature Classes

lu_1930s

Spatial Information: 88,927 records; each polygon and row = one "field" (an area of contiguous land use like a crop field or water body).  
Format: file geodatabase polygon feature class
Feature Dataset: landuse
Primary Key: OBJECTID
Attributes:
  • Reclasses_Land_Cover_30, Land_cover_30, Uncertain_30, Why_uncertain_30, Field_outside_grid_30, Irrigated_30, Hatching_30, Successional_30, Comments_30, County_30, State_30, FIPS_30, Grid_ID_30, Shape_Length, Shape_Area.
Coded Domains: see table at top of page.
Scale: Polygons were digitized at 1:4,800; minimum mapping unit = 30 meters.
Source: Custom dataset created by manually interpreting aerial photos.

lu_1950s

Spatial Information: 94,194 records; each polygon and row = one "field" (an area of contiguous land use like a crop field or water body).  
Format: file geodatabase polygon feature class
Feature Dataset: landuse
Primary Key: OBJECTID
Attributes:
  • Reclasses_Land_Cover_50, Land_cover_50, Uncertain_50, Why_uncertain_50, Field_outside_grid_50, Irrigated_50, Hatching_50, Successional_50, Comments_50, County_50, State_50, FIPS_50, Grid_ID_50, Shape_Length, Shape_Area.
Coded Domains: see table at top of page.
Scale: Polygons were digitized at 1:4,800; minimum mapping unit = 30 meters.
Source: Custom dataset created by manually interpreting aerial photos.

lu_1970s

Spatial Information: 74,382 records; each polygon and row = one "field" (an area of contiguous land use like a crop field or water body).  
Format: file geodatabase polygon feature class
Feature Dataset: landuse
Primary Key: OBJECTID
Attributes:
  • Reclasses_Land_Cover_70, Land_cover_70, Uncertain_70, Why_uncertain_70, Field_outside_grid_70, Irrigated_70, Hatching_70, Successional_70, Comments_70, County_70, State_70, FIPS_70, Grid_ID_70, Shape_Length, Shape_Area.
Coded Domains: see table at top of page.
Scale: Polygons were digitized at 1:4,800; minimum mapping unit = 30 meters.
Source: Custom dataset created by manually interpreting aerial photos.

lu_1990s

Spatial Information: 75,032 records; each polygon and row = one "field" (an area of contiguous land use like a crop field or water body).  
Format: file geodatabase polygon feature class
Feature Dataset: landuse
Primary Key: OBJECTID
Attributes:
  • Reclasses_Land_Cover_90, Land_cover_90, Uncertain_90, Why_uncertain_90, Field_outside_grid_90, Irrigated_90, Hatching_90, Successional_90, Comments_90, County_90, State_90, FIPS_90, Grid_ID_90, Shape_Length, Shape_Area.
Coded Domains: see table at top of page.
Scale: Polygons were digitized at 1:4,800; minimum mapping unit = 30 meters.
Source: Custom dataset created by manually interpreting aerial photos.

lu_2000s

Spatial Information: 69,628 records; each polygon and row = one "field" (an area of contiguous land use like a crop field or water body).  
Format: file geodatabase polygon feature class
Feature Dataset: landuse
Primary Key: OBJECTID
Attributes:
  • Reclasses_Land_Cover_00, Land_cover_00, Uncertain_00, Why_uncertain_00, Field_outside_grid_00, Irrigated_00, Hatching_00, Successional_00, Comments_00, County_00, State_00, FIPS_00, Grid_ID_00, Shape_Length, Shape_Area.
Coded Domains: see table at top of page.
Scale: Polygons were digitized at 1:4,800; minimum mapping unit = 30 meters.
Source: Custom dataset created by manually interpreting aerial photos.