FBO_6_Technical_Exhibit_1_NRI_Overview.pdf

Resource Inventory Division

Technical Exhibit (TE-1)

NRI—

National Resources Inventory

A Scientific Survey The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is a longitudinal statistical survey designed to help gauge natural resource status, conditions, and trends on the Nation's non-Federal land. Non-Federal land includes privately owned lands, tribal and trust lands, and lands controlled by State and local governments and represents nearly 75 percent of the Nation’s total land area. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has begun collecting NRI on-site data on rangelands managed by the Bureau of Land Management under an interagency agreement.

The NRI survey program is conducted by the NRCS in cooperation with Iowa State University’s Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology. This partnership ensures that the NRI is science based, employing well-established scientific survey principles.

The NRI is carried out under the authority of a number of legislative acts, including the Rural Development Act of 1972, the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act of 1977, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.

Unique Assessment Tool The NRI provides nationally consistent statistical data that support analysis of resource trends on rural and developed land over all regions of the United States since 1982. This trending capability is possible because—

• the same sample sites have been studied since 1982;

• a number of key data elements have been collected in a consistent manner since 1982;

• the inventory accounts for 100 percent of the surface area;

• quality assurance and statistical procedures are designed to ensure that trend data are scientifically legitimate and unambiguous; and

• it is easy to track lands as they go from one land use category to another.

The NRI can address a broad range of natural resource issues, enabling it to fulfill its primary purpose of supporting agricultural and environmental policy development and program implementation. Interpretations and analyses are made from a natural resources perspective rather than from a purely land use or vegetative cover or ownership basis because the NRI is soils-based. The NRI has evolved over time; it has adapted to broader and more sophisticated goals, changing technologies, and the need for improved cost-effectiveness.

Inventory Cycle The NRI was conducted and reported every 5 years during the period 1977 to 1997 but is now conducted annually. Major releases of the data will continue to be reported at 5-year intervals. This shift helps align the NRI with the need for timely information to support agricultural and conservation policy development and the assessment of the impacts of policy choices and conservation program implementation.

Data are gathered for a scientifically selected subset of the 800,000 sample sites that were established for previous NRIs. This subsample includes a set of “Core” sample sites, which are sampled each year, and “Rotation” (or “supplemental”) sample sites that vary by inventory year and allow an inventory to focus on emerging issues.

Data collection relies upon high-quality, high-resolution aerial imagery, field office records, historical records and data, ancillary materials, and site visits.

NRI data release procedures are affected by implementation of an annual data collection approach because the scale of NRI estimates is affected by reduced sample sizes. Estimates are being released when they meet statistical standards and are scientifically credible in accordance with NRCS policy, and in accordance with OMB and USDA Quality of Information Guidelines.

TECHNICAL EXHIBIT 1

1212A2318Q00006 Solicitation - NRCS (SSRA-RAD)

RAD GIS LAB, Beltsville, Maryland