Delaware National Resources Inventory (NRI)

The 1997 National Resources Inventory (NRI) is the latest in a series of inventories conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly the Soil Conservation Service. It provides updated information on the status, condition, and trends of land, soil, water, and related resources on the nation's non-Federal land. The 1997 NRI is unique in that it provides a nationally consistent database that was constructed specifically to estimate 5-, 10- and 15-year trends for natural resources from 1982 to 1997. The 1992 NRI was instrumental in providing data on natural resources for the USDA publication, A Geography of Hope.

Data for the 1997 NRI were collected for more than 500 locations in Delaware by NRCS field personnel, resources inventory specialists, and remote sensing data collectors at the Inventory Collection and Coordination Site in Morgantown, West Virginia. The NRI was scientifically designed and conducted and is based on recognized statistical sampling methods. NRI data are statistically reliable for national, regional, state and substate analysis. Generally, however, interpretations at the local level may be misleading.

As the key to interpreting the state of America's land, NRI information will be used to formulate effective public policies, to fashion agricultural and natural resources legislation, to develop state and national conservation programs, and to allocate USDA financial and technical assistance in addressing natural resource concerns.

Highlights

Significant findings for 1997 are as follows:

Land Use

The total 1997 Delaware land base is 1,533.500 acres
This includes:

- 484,500 acres of cropland down from 518,600 acres of cropland in 1982.

- 23,700 acres of pastureland down from 37,200 acres of pastureland in 1982

- 351,500 acres of forestland down from 370,400 acres of forestland on 1982

Water Erosion Reductions

Delaware's average erosion rates on cropland remained about the same from 1982. Rates of sheet and rill erosion on cropland declined from 2.09 tons of soil per acre per year in 1982 to 1.99 tons in 1992.

Prime Farmland

Prime farmland is land that has the best combination of physical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber and other crops and is also available for these uses. Delaware had 406,800 acres of soils classified as prime farmland in 1997, which represents over 26 percent of the state's total land area. Nationally, 65 percent of the soils classified as prime farmland are being used as cropland. In Delaware 74 percent are used as cropland. Delaware has 73,600 acres of forestland classified as prime.

A total of 31,900 acres of prime farmland became unavailable for production of food, feed, forage, fiber crops between 1982 and 1997. Most was converted to urban and rural development.

• Obtain Additional Data from the 2002 NRI

The following Documents require Adobe Acrobat.

Delaware Soil Loss Information 1997 Data (34 KB)
Delaware Soil Loss Information in Tons per Acre 1997 Data (17 KB)
Delaware Land Use Land Cover Data 1997 (48 KB)
Delaware Acres of Cropland 1982 to 1997 Data (19 KB)
Delaware Acres of Forestland 1997 Data (16 KB)

• Geospatial Data Gateway

Provides One Stop Shopping for natural resources or environmental data at anytime, from anywhere, to anyone. The Gateway allows you to choose your area of interest, browse and select data from our catalog, customize the format, and have it downloaded or shipped on CD.

Last Modified:  12/03/2007 10:26:07 AM

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