Wyoming Cropland Classification from 1980s Aerial Photography

Polygon data delineates agricultural land use in Wyoming, derived from hand-drawn interpretations of 1:58,200-scale color infrared aerial photos. The layer was created by SCIOPS for the Wyoming Ground-Water Vulnerability Mapping Project. Source photography was captured between 1980 and 1982.

Use Cases

• Model groundwater vulnerability by correlating irrigated and non-irrigated cropland polygons with chemical application data.
• Analyze historical land cover change by comparing 1980s cropland, urban land, and non-agricultural land polygons with modern datasets.
• Classify land use types such as golf courses, which were updated using 1994 photography, for regional planning studies.

Strengths

• Land use designations were manually interpreted from high-resolution (1:58,200-scale) aerial photography.
• Polygon data includes specific validated categories like irrigated cropland, non-irrigated cropland, and urban land.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, based on imagery from 1980-1982, with only golf courses updated to 1994.
• The manual digitization process from hand-drawn plots may introduce interpretation and digitization errors.
• Sample size and geographic coverage are limited to the state of Wyoming.

Provenance

Source

National High Altitude Program (NHAP) color infrared aerial photography.

Collection Method

Photos were interpreted and land use designations hand-drawn onto plots, which were then digitized into ARC/INFO as polygons.

Time Range

1980-1982 (primary), 1994 (golf course update)

Freshness

null

Geography

State of Wyoming, USA.