A Preliminary Nutrient Use Geographic Information System (NuGIS) for the U.S.

IPNI sees on-going assessment of nutrient balance and nutrient use efficiency in crop production as one of its responsibilities. That assessment is one of the two primary objectives of NuGIS. The other objective is to identify weaknesses in the process of doing that assessment.

Our goal in NuGIS is to put a face on nutrient use and nutrient use trends in the U.S. Once that face is developed, the “blemishes” in the developmental process should become more apparent and their significance better appreciated, with the hope that all of us involved in the process will collectively strive for improvements.

This technical bulletin integrates multiple data layers to create county-level estimates of nutrient removal by crops, fertilizer applied, and excreted and recoverable livestock manure nutrients. Nutrient balances and recovery efficiencies by the balance method were estimated for the five U.S. Agricultural Census years from 1987 through 2007. Geospatial techniques were used to migrate the county data to 8-digit hydrologic units for watershed evaluation. Results are shown in a combination of color maps, tables, and graphs.

An extensive in-depth methods section is provided to offer complete transparency into how the balance estimates are made and displayed. The intent of this transparency is to make the “blemishes” obvious so constructive criticisms can be collected and the need for any process improvements apparent. Interpretation of the results is rather limited. Future, more focused publications will emphasize interpretation. We see this bulletin presenting a preliminary NuGIS. Once we have received input from the many stakeholders interested in nutrient use, appropriate modifications will be made and a final NuGIS will be released and become part of the routine operation of IPNI.

To access the interactive features of NuGIS, click here.

Please submit comments or suggestions for improvement to nugis@ipni.net.

PDF of the publication
NuGis 2010.pdf

NuGIS ORDER FORM.pdf