ARS | Publication request: Development of soil, land-use and management data bases for Aeolian research in eight western states, USA

Submitted to: Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 5, 2008
Publication Date: October 9, 2008
Citation: Feng, G., Sharratt, B.S., Vaughan, J., Lamb, B. 2008. Development of soil, land-use and management data bases for Aeolian research in eight western states, USA. Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting.

Technical Abstract: Soil erosion by wind is a severe problem that degrades air quality and visibility in the Pacific Northwest United States. Air quality is a regional concern that requires the use of an air quality model to simulate/forecast agricultural dust emissions, dispersion, and transport across a vast mosaic of land primarily used for crop production. We are attempting to simulate these processes using AIRPACT3 coupled with the USDA-ARS Wind Erosion Prediction System (WEPS). AIRPACT3 simulates the atmospheric transport of air pollutants across eight western states and WEPS simulates dust emissions from agricultural land. The hybrid model is called WEPS-AIRPACT3 and requires the use of soil properties, land cover, and crop management databases. A comprehensive multiscale database of soil stratum properties was developed for the eight western states based upon the NRCS-STATSGO soil database. The database contains information on 30 soil properties across 10 soil layers. The US-EPA Biogenic Emissions Landcover Database (BELD3) provides percentages of USGS land cover types and 230 vegetation classes at a resolution of 1 km. The USDA-NRCS Crop Management Zone (CMZ) database contains detailed tillage and cropping systems data. These three databases (i.e. Soils, BELD3, and CMZ) were gridded into either 1 or 12 km cells across the eight state domain for regional air quality modeling. This presentation will introduce data sources and methodologies used for creating the databases and provide a case study in using these databases for parameterizing the regional air quality model.