Interpreting the National Resources Inventory for regional planners and decision makers: a case study for the Tennessee Valley region
A study of the status and condition of land resources in the Land and Water 201 Region serves as a model for testing techniques and procedures developed to analyze data from the National Resources Inventories (NRIs). Means of communication resource information effectively to regional planners, decision makers, and the general public are developed and evaluated. Soil loss tolerance (T) values currently used by the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) are at least one order of magnitude too high. Their replacement with site-specific values for sustainable erosion and erosion control objectives is recommended. The erosion analysis chart, the most important new tool developed during the course of the study, is particularly used in optimizing eligibility criteria for planned erosion control incentives. Program objectives of Land and Water 201 - a regional cooperative resource conservation program of the seven Tennessee Valley states, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Tennessee Valley Authority - are discussed, and the development of a regional conservation strategy is recommended. The region suffers about $800 million of erosion damage annually. Fifty percent of excessive soil loss on cultivated cropland could be avoided by retiring 750,000 acres (7%). 5.7 million acres of potential cropland might be used to replace marginal cropland and the expand the cropland base. Only one-half of the region's prime farmland is cropped.
- Research Organization:
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5478653
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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