The ACPF is intended for intermediate to advanced GIS users who are familiar with Esri’s ArcGIS platform. Users should be comfortable with geodatabase naming and storage, editing procedures, geoprocessing tools, multiple data formats, and basic spatial troubleshooting. In addition, anticipate roughly two days of practice and training to become an effective user. Find ACPF training and support resources.
To use ACPF, you’ll need ArcGIS and TauDEM software, the ACPF toolbox, soils and land use data, and elevation data.
The ACPF watershed data download site now holds over 11,733 watersheds of data – including new watersheds in Ohio – and has been updated to include the 2020 NASS Cropland Data Layer (CDL) on each watershed’s Crop History table and incorporates these data into the GenLU field in the LU6 table. The GenLU (6-year crop management) field now uses the data from 2015-2020.
The soils data in the ACPF have also been updated to the most current version of the NRCS Soil Survey (July 2020). There have been some slight modifications to the ACPF soil’s database structure that will necessitate using the new ACPF toolbox from April 2021. The soil’s database enhancement will support the development of an Economic Analysis tool for ACPF conservation practice results.
The new version of the ACPF Toolbox (Version 3 linked below) includes:
- A new field, updateYear, to the FB<HUC12> feature class indicating when the most recent edits to the field boundaries feature class were finalized.
- Two new fields to the gSSURGO attribute table to support an economic analysis tool by tracking opportunity costs (OCProdIdx, OCProdIdxSrc). Opportunity costs reflect the cost of removing land from production. The economics tool is currently in development.
** ACPF Users Please Note:
Due to server issues, changes have been made to the toolboxes to ensure correct links are maintained for the tools. We have responded by modifying the script to use the correct parameters. These scripts are available in the current version of the toolbox. We encourage all to download the new toolboxes – toolboxes from 09142021 – to ensure successful processing. Please let us know if you have any issues!
WHO CAN USE THE ACPF
Conservation Planners
Conservation planners who work with communities to develop watershed plans and proposals, as well as work with producers one-on-one can use this tool within the 9-Step Conservation Planning Process. Maps with ACPF outputs can be provided for conservation planners to use to work with producers within a watershed on a field-by-field basis to tackle larger watershed goals. Watershed output training [hyperlink] is available for planners to use the ACPF in professional application.
GIS Specialists
Intermediate to advanced GIS users who are familiar with Esri’s ArcGIS platform can run the ACPF tool. GIS Users users should be comfortable with geodatabase naming and storage, editing procedures, geoprocessing tools, multiple data formats, and basic spatial troubleshooting. In addition, anticipate roughly two days of practice and training to become an effective user. To run ACPF, you’ll need ArcGIS and TauDEM software, the ACPF toolbox, soils and land use data, and elevation data. Technical training [hyperlink] is available for GIS users.
With support from NRCS Headquarters, the National Hub for the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework is now offering ACPF particularly to State NRCS offices across the US.
SOFTWARE
Find out more about ArcGIS on their website.
TauDEM is a suite of tools for the extraction and analysis of hydrologic information from topography. The ACPF is compatible with TauDEM 5.3.7. To run ACPF, TauDEM 5.3 Complete Windows Installer is also needed.
An Example of an ACPF output map
ACPF TOOLBOX
The GIS toolbox analyzes high-resolution land use, soil and terrain data and generates output maps that identity a menu of possible locations for a variety of conservation practices within fields, below fields and riparian zones. Included in the toolbox are practice placement tools that can be tailored to the setting of your individual watershed. Save the download zip file to a local file location on your computer and read the “installation instructions” text file that is included.
The various toolsets allow users to:
SOILS AND LAND USE DATA
The USDA provides soil and land use data through the ACPF Watershed Database.
The database include:
- Agricultural field boundaries
- Land use and field-specific crop rotations, based on the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer
- Soils data extracted from the NRCS gSSURGO soils database
Currently, ACPF has soil and land use data for Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and portions of Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Interested in ACPF but don’t have soil and land use data for your area? Using the ACPF Utilities Suite you can create your own ACPF database complete with watershed boundaries, field boundaries, elevation, soils and land use data and run the ACPF tools anywhere in the conterminous United States.
To create your own geodatabase, watch Lecture 29 in the ACPF training videos or check out our newly developed Story Map. Both resources take you step by step through using the ACPF Utilities Suite within ACPF Version 3 to create your own ACPF geodatabase.
ELEVATION DATA
A key data requirement for many of the ArcGIS tools is a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM), typically derived from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor surveys. The horizontal map unit of the DEM must be in meters, although any horizontal or vertical resolution is accepted. A horizontal resolution of 2 or 3 meters has been found to be effective, as higher resolution does not improve output quality and substantially increases processing time. The ACPF toolbox also requires that all input layers be in the same projection. The ACPF database is maintained in a Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection, with UTM zones being determined by the centroid location of the watershed boundary of each HUC12. The DEM should extend beyond the watershed boundary enough (e.g. 1,000 meters) to ensure coverage of all fields that may lie only partly within the watershed.
DEM data for many states is available through state agencies or universities. For example, Iowa DEM data is available through the Iowa State University GIS Facility and Minnesota DEM data is available through the Minnesota DNR.
Not sure where to find your state’s DEM data? Ask the ACPF Forum. The ACPF Forum is a Google Group of ACPF users from around the region where you can share results, ask questions, and report issues. This is also a great way to find out about ACPF updates. You can also find out about ACPF updates through the ACPF mailing list where we email out the latest ACPF news and events. Subscribe to our mailing list.