This map identifies agricultural areas that are likely to have been drained for crop production, usually through subsurface tile drainage, in the Midwestern United States. These areas were identified based on the natural drainage condition of the soil, using the 2018 gSSURGO data from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Only agricultural land is included, based on the 2011 National Land Cover Database.
- Very poorly to poorly drained soils are assumed to have at least some form of artificial drainage installed to support agricultural land use, and therefore classified as "likely to be drained".
- Somewhat poorly drained soils are classified as "potentially drained", as these soils are often included whenever drainage improvements or upgrades are made in the field.
- Moderately well drained to excessively drained soils are classified as "unlikely to be drained" as these soils are not likely to suffer from excess soil water conditions, and therefore not likely to be artificially drained.
Field assessment is needed when determining the actual drained conditions of a particular area of interest.
In addition to this online web tool, GIS layers can be downloaded or accessed by other applications as a REST service. Users can learn more about using the tool by viewing the User Guide and Tutorial Video.
The Hillshade and Natural Drainage Class layer services were developed by Darrell Schulze (https://soilexplorer.net). The map service is hosted by the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies.
Citation for this online tool:
Frankenberger, J., Reinhart, B., Hancock, B. (2022). Likely Extent of Agricultural Drainage in the U.S. Midwest. Transforming Drainage Tools, online at https://transformingdrainage.org/tools. [date of access]
Citation for the dataset, available for download at the Purdue University Research Repository:
Frankenberger, J., Reinhart, B., Hancock, B. (2022). Likely Extent of Agricultural Drainage in the U.S. Midwest. Purdue University Research Repository. doi:10.4231/NJTE-FA88
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture (award number 2015-68007-23193) and the U.S. EPA (award number 83675301). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or U.S. EPA.
