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Title: REGIONAL SPATIAL ANALYSIS USING THE NATIONAL RESOURCES INVENTORY

Author
item JAMES, DAVID - LOCKHEED ENVIRON. SYSTEMS
item Burkart, Michael
item HEWITT, MASON - U.S. EPA

Submitted to: Environmental Systems Research Institute Users Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There is increasing public concern for the environmental effects of agriculture, especially the effects of herbicides and pesticides on water quality. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have undertaken research that will examine the ecological effects of agricultural chemicals in the midwestern United States at the watershed, ecoregion, and regional scales. One of the primary goals of this research is to provide a GIS-based resource characterization and analysis framework. This is needed to support the risk-assessment and decision-support functions affecting national agricultural policies. This goal will be accomplished through the development of a multi-scale resource analysis framework that will allow interaction between scientists and critical data bases, like the Natural Resource Conservation Service's (NRCS) National Resources Inventory (NRI). The NRI Data Explorer provides a menu-based access tool to the NRI data base. This application uses the Arc/Info geographic information system to provide mapping and data base access capabilities. The NRI Data Explorer was written in the ARC macro language (AML) to take advantage of Arc/Info's spatial data handling tools and menuing capabilities to provide an easy-to-use graphic interface for querying the NRI data base and displaying the results. This paper is a summary of the progress to date in developing the NRI Data Explorer, and it describes some of the application's important features, provides an example of how the application may be used, and establishes some goals for future research.