Monday, November 5, 2007 - 10:15 AM
107-4

Using RTK to Identify Areas that Should be Enrolled in CRP.

Adam Pike and Thomas Mueller. University of Kentucky, University of Kentucky, Pssb-n-122 Ag Science Center North, Lexington, KY 40546

Soil erosion is still a major concern in greatly sloped areas of the World. Due to this, programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have been implemented as an incentive for farmers to take high risk areas out of production and put them into more of a conservational use. Due to the vast area and limitations of second order soil surveys, the NRCS will have problems determining which areas should be enrolled in CRP. This could leave the NRCS underestimating the number of acres that can and should be enrolled. It would also leave more acres susceptible to possible erosion and more sediment being transported to freshwater streams. On a large scale basis, terrain attribute data from USGS maps could be used to help determine areas that have been severely eroded or are potentially prone to serious erosion. The 10-m USGS Digital Elevation Models (DEM) are not as accurate (Pike et al., 2006) as the RTK elevation measurements but would still give a general idea of susceptible areas. These areas could be identified and then monitored for future development into a conservation program. On a smaller scale, terrain attribute data from RTK elevation measurements may be used to accurately pinpoint areas that need to be enrolled in the CRP program. By determining the erodibility index from terrain attributes along with other factors calculated from topographic indices, potential erodible areas could be identified. Preliminary findings suggest that areas with a high value for stream power index should be considered in the CRP program based on the possibility of sheet or rill erosion taking place.