Tag Archives: agriculture

Hard Copy Maps Still Rule: NYS Agricultural Districts

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The art form is still alive as counties design and create maps as part of the Agricultural District Certification process

I’ve written about agriculture in New York State before in context of the farming community continuing to evolve with the adoption of geospatial technologies. With farmland covering nearly 20% of the state’s geographic footprint, its easy to see why geospatial tools are so increasingly important in managing the state’s prime agricultural lands.  And one does not need to look far to see the advancements of new geospatial technologies in New York State agriculture, particularly with the recent Systems and Technologies for Remote Sensing Sensing Applications Through Unmanned Aerial Systems (STRATUS) conference May 23-25, 2022 at SUNY ESF in Syracuse. Several papers and even dedicated tracks of papers and presentations focusing on UAV/drone technology in agriculture.

And it’s big business, too. A November 2021 article published by NY Business Agribusiness Column: Economic Impact of Agriculture in New York State stated that “agriculture in New York State contributed $43.6 billion in total industry output, 160,100 jobs and $12.3 billion in gross domestic product across the state economy.” It’s a rather amazing article with many more figures on how agriculture impacts the statewide economy, The article is based on the work and research of Todd Schmidt, an associate professor with the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics Management at Cornell University.

Which makes it all the more interesting in 2022, even with the fledgling agritech applications and the almost complete conversion and automation of our mapping, cartography, and business/financial systems, the certification of agricultural districts in the state still involves the use of an iconic piece of mapping and cartography: The hardcopy map. Yes, while the digital data/products in producing the hardcopy maps are used and repurposed in many useful and productive ways across the state, it is still the hardcopy map which is used as part of the agriculture district certification process by NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets (AgMkts).

Background

Since 1971 , the Agricultural Districts Law, Article 25AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law (AML), as administered through (AgMkts), has reflected state and county level efforts to preserve, protect and encourage the development and improvement of agricultural land for the production of food, fiber and other agricultural products. As districts are created, or modified during renewal, maps are generated, based on tax parcels included in the districts. Each county is responsible for creating maps to meet the requirements of the Agricultural Districts Mapping Program. Supporting AgMkts in this regard is Cornell University’s Institute for Resource Information Sciences (IRIS) has helped facilitate the mapping program since 1977. Its primary responsibility is to support agricultural district mapping efforts by reviewing, distributing, and archiving agricultural district maps, and to provide consultation services. Automation of the statewide district maps began in earnest In 1996 when the entire set of NYS Agricultural District maps in the collection of Cornell IRIS (formally CLEARS) was converted to digital format. This was done by shipping blueprint copies of the maps to the NYS DEC for scanning.

Article 25AA references maps several times in Section 303 as a required deliverable for certification of a district. Specifically the text includes “The district review plan shall include a description of the district, including a map delineating the exterior boundaries of the district which shall conform to tax parcel boundaries”.  Agricultural districts across New York State are reviewed and certified on an eight-year cycle.

The Map

It’s a real treat anymore to show up at a meeting or discussion and be given the chance to review a traditional, well designed hard copy map. Increasingly becoming rarer and rarer. And just think how much less demand there would be for hardcopy maps if it wasn’t for the ubiquitous use and sharing of the PDF file format? For so many years, the 1:24,000 map was one of the most commonly used map design and layouts following in step with the classic U.S. Geological Survey 2000-scale quadrangle grid series. And yes, it just so happens the required base map standard for the agricultural district maps, as outlined in the Agiriculture Districts Program Mapping Checklist prepared by IRIS, is 1:24,000. According to Diane Ayers, who provides staff support to the mapping program, “IRIS recommends either the NYS DOT 7 ½ minute planimetric map series (available in either raster or vector format) as the base map for individual County mapping products.”

The 32-page document consists of written requirements covering topics such as, but not limited to, map content including roads, civil boundaries, and water features, as well as traditional map items such as north arrows, keys and legends, scale bars, and the bounding geographic coordinate grid.  Documentation on the source of base map data, other data layers, year of parcel data, and geographic reference information (datum, projection, etc) is also recommended.   It also includes several pages of examples covering a wide range of other hardcopy cartographic principles including annotation, color selection, and symbology.  Many items which cartographers and map makers have greater flexibility in controlling when using desktop client software vs. web mapping cartographic tools. 

Appendix 1 in the Mapping Checklist document shows examples of how to render the district boundary as the most prominent feature on the map

While counties send all review materials associated with the eight-year review, including tax parcel information, directly to AgMkts, the county produced hardcopy map and shapefiles are sent directly to Ayers.   She reviews the maps for consistency with the mapping checklist and then forwards to AgMkts and uses the shapefiles to maintain a consistent a set of statewide district maps which are available via CUGIR.  The statewide coverage she maintains based on this relationship and data exchange with the counties can be found here.

The 2022 Ontario Agriculture District Map as produced by IRIS. Shapefiles and documentation received from counties enables IRIS to maintain a statewide agricultural district coverage.

Sheri Norton is the GIS Coordinator for Ontario County, located in the Finger Lakes region renown for viticulture and other agricultural products. She has been through three district reviews including a large countywide consolidation in 2021. “Agriculture District mapping is a big effort with partnership between our Planning, Real Property and GIS Program staff”, she says, “but with my previous experience in producing the mapping products for IRIS and becoming more comfortable with ArcGIS Pro, the map series and formal reports are now easily updated for the next review cycles.  The ArcGIS client is all I use.”   Which is quite an accomplishment, as keep in mind many final cartographic products are often “touched up” before final publication with other desktop publishing software such as Adobe Illustrator. The certification also includes generating a list of all tax parcels in the district(s) based on the county assessment roll.

Sheri Norton’s 2021 Ontario County Agriculture District One map designed and produced entirely with desktop GIS software.  This same map was provided to AgMkts as part of the review and certification process

Summary

Hard copy maps are as close to GIS comfort food as we can get.   And here in New York is refreshing to see how this important piece of our cartography past is still being used in a government regulatory program.  Holding its own against all of the advancements – and acceptance of digital web mapping.  Kudos to GIS professionals across the state who are still producing hardcopy maps and helping the product remain relevant as part of the profession.

Agricultural Districts protect and promote the availability of land for farming purposes.  For informative overview of this important Empire State Program review this presentation.

Contact

Diane Ayers
Data Manager and Educator
NYS Agricultural Districts Mapping Program
Cornell IRIS
1015 Bradfield Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
dag10@cornell.edu

Sheri Norton 
GIS Coordinator, GISP
Geographic Information Systems Program
Ontario County Information Technology Department
70 Ontario Street
Canandaigua, NY 14424
Sheri.Norton@ontariocountyny.gov

Jeff Kehoe 
Farmland Protection Specialist
Department of Agriculture and Markets | Division of Land and Water Resources
10B Airline Drive
Albany, New York 12235
jeffrey.kehoe@agriculture.ny.gov

Digital Agriculture Continues to Evolve in New York State

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Agriculture is important to New York State’s economy, and takes place in almost every region of the State as nearly one-quarter of New York’s total land area is utilized as farmland. There are a plethora of statistics which document the vastness of the agriculture industry across the Empire State:  An annual economic impact of over $42 billion, over 36,000 farms, 1.5 million head of cattle, 40,000 acres of apple trees, $25 million worth of maple syrup and 14.9 billion pounds of milk.  And #1 in the nation in the production of over 700 million pounds of yogurt.  The list goes on.

It’s refreshing to see this important statewide industry begin to intersect with geospatial in a more expanded and robust means.  The movement began to see traction a little over three years ago with the New York Precision Agriculture Workshop held in Geneva, NY in December 2015.    The goal of the workshop was to help assess the use and development of precision agriculture in New York State and was held after a directive from the New York State Legislature instructing the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets to “issue a report assessing the use and development of precision agriculture in the state with recommendations pertaining to rural broadband accessibility, use and support for the farmer, as well as cost savings and higher crop yield.”   Over 50 individuals from the New York agricultural community were in attendance representing higher education, research, agronomic business, farmers, technology, government and more.

Nearly a year later in November 2016, the 151-page Digital Agriculture in New York State:  Report and Recommendations was published through Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  One of the primary recommendations which was ultimately established was the Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture  (CIDA).  Recently, CIDA hosted its inaugural Digital Ag Workshop October 9, 2018 on the Cornell University campus. The event was titled “Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems” and was attended by 200 individuals.  The Workshop included a wide range of presentations and resulted in the establishment of four interdisciplinary Digital Agriculture (DA) Working Groups:  Rapid Phenotyping, Socioeconomic Analysis for Digital Agriculture, Weather, Climate and Agriculture, and The Software-defined Farm.  It will be interesting to see how CIDA evolves in its outreach, research, and building partnerships with government and industry.  Cornell University was rated one of the Top 25 Best Colleges for Precision Agriculture in the United States.   For those interested in following the program, upcoming events and webinars, sign-up for updates and e-News from this CIDA webpage.

Other signs of growth in the statewide Digital Agriculture (also often referred to as “Precision Agriculture”) space augmenting CIDA’s mission includes a recent  ESRI press release announcing Ag-Analytics which is part of their Emerging Partner Startup Program.   Ag-Analytics offers a platform with tools that make utilizing farm data easier than ever. Built around the Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS) framework, Ag-Analytics offers farmers the ability to better manage and visualize their production records to make informed decisions when it comes to understanding risk.  As farm equipment manufacturers become larger and prominent players in the Digital/Precision Agriculture development, it is no surprise that the Ag-Analytics program is integrated with the John Deere Operations Center.  Faculty from the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University are involved with the Ag-Analytics program.  We also saw in 2018, DropCopter, an agricultural technology startup funded through the GeniusNY drone incubator in Syracuse, which managed to pollinate apple orchards in Lafayette, New York using their hexacopter drone. The recent decline of bee populations has raised pollination prices significantly, creating a market for alternative technologies such as Dropcopter.   Evolving in other areas, we would anticipate seeing government program areas such New York State Agriculture and Markets and/or the  New York office of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) begin to build some level of digital/precision agriculture capacity as well.

On a related note at the federal level is the passage of the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act of 2018.  With the focus of the bill  to “identify and measure current gaps in the availability of broadband Internet access service on agricultural land”, the bill assigns responsibility to the USDA and FCC to “develop policy recommendations to promote the rapid, expanded deployment of fixed and mobile broadband Internet access service on unserved agricultural land, with a goal of achieving reliable capabilities on 95% of agricultural land in the United States by 2025”.  Kudos to the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) working to successfully amend language in the original bill to ensure that members of the task force assembled to make recommendations include “representatives with relevant expertise in broadband network data collection, geospatial analysis, and coverage mapping”.

No doubt, exciting developments for the agriculture industry across the Empire State and great opportunities for the geospatial community to contribute and be part of.

Watershed Agricultural Council: Geospatial in Upstate NYC Watershed Lands

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The New York City Watershed is the largest unfiltered surface water supply system in the United States. Every day this region in upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains provides more than a billion gallons of clean drinking water to the more than nine million people residing in New York City and upstate counties. The system includes 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and a watershed that spans more than a million acres. In some cases, water travels more than a hundred miles to reach New York City.  While other large US cities typically own the land that drains into their reservoirs – New York City’s lands are unique:  Nearly 75 percent of the watershed lands are privately owned with NYC and the State of New York owning a mixture of the remaining lands.  Consequently, New York’s water quality depends in large part on the actions of the 30,000 landowners who live, work, and recreate on watershed lands.  Overall, nearly 70% of the watersheds are forested with the remaining lands in predominately agricultural use.

The Watershed Agricultural Council (WAC) is one of two primary watershed partners (Catskill Watershed Corporation being the other) locally-based not-for-profit corporations specifically created to assist New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) with the administration and implementation of watershed protection and economic development programs in its water supply lands. The WAC is involved primarily with natural resource and land conservation programs, whereas the Catskill Watershed Corporation primarily oversees community infrastructure and economic development programs. Many other watershed partners serve in various capacities, such as oversight, advice, public education, and communication.

WAC Geospatial

WAC GIS and geospatial applications are built to support four major program areas within the NYC watershed lands:  Forestry, Agriculture, Conservation Easements, and Economic Viability.    Managing these applications and infrastructure in their three offices [(Walton,  Hamden , and Yorktown (East of Hudson)]  is the responsibility of Nadine Trahan who joined WAC three years ago after having attended both undergraduate and graduate school in New Zealand.  Nadine developed and maintains a ESRI Geodatabase to support enterprise geospatial applications.  She notes wireless connectivity and high speed internet connectivity can be a “challenge” in the rural Catskills which plays into the deployment of the enterprise applications.  Given the connectivity issues, Nadine uses ArcGIS Portal to design and download applications to mobile devices for in-field deployment:  Data collected remotely is synchronized with the enterprise geodatabase when field devices are connected to the network upon return to the office.  She currently supports approximately 40 users involving everything from high-end client software apps to browser-based applications for the more casual user.  This later category of user being staff which use an internal web map to edit point locations of Pure Catskills members as part of the Economic Viability focus.
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