The land potential data base for Canada Users' handbook v. KIRKWOOD, J. DUMANSKI, A. BOOTSMA, R.B. STEWART, and R. MUMA Land Resource Research Centre Ottawa, Ontario Technical Bulletin 1983-4 E LRRC Contribution No. 86-29 Research Branch Agriculture Canada 1989 Copies of this publication are available from Director Land Resource Research Centre Research Branch, Agriculture Canada Ottawa, Ontario KIA OC6 Produced by Research Program Service © Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1989 Cat. No. A54-81l983-4-1989E ISBN 0-662-16782-1 Printed 1983 Revised 1989 Cover illustration The dots on the map represent Agriculture Canada research establishments. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page SUMMARy............................................................... 3 RESUME , , '" " .... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 INTRODUCTION. ......................................................... 7 DATA FILES CONTAINED IN THE LAND POTENTIAL DATA BASE Cl imate. ......................................................... 7 Soil Description And Soil Climate 8 Actual yield..................................................... 9 Degradation 10 Constraint-Free yield 10 CLI Capability For Agriculture 11 Provincial Proportion 11 Soil Suitability 11 DATA RETRIEVAL ·............................ .................. 11 APPENDIX I - Associated Files 13 APPENDIX II - Data Dictionary Of Variable Names 15 APPENDIX III - Additional Definitions For Variables In the Data Base .. 41 APPENDIX IV - Alphabetical Listing Of Variable Names 50 3 SUMMARY The Land Potential Data Base (LPDB) is a computerized information base, containing data about soil, climate, physiography, land use, modeled constraint free (potential) crop yields, actual crop yields and soil degradation for all regions of Canada. These data are referenced (keyed) to the map units of the Soils of Canada map, 1:5,000,000. Other types of data, derived from studies using input from these main files, or containing links to other types of information, ego Census of Agri- cu lture or crop reporting districts, etc., are included as well, but these are reported in the appendices. The first part of this public- ation gives an overview of the basic files contained in the data base, and lists the names of the variables to be found in each file. The Land Potential Data Base is the only comprehensive, national source of information on the land resources of Canada. These data have been used for various kinds of studies, such as crop yield potentials, soil degradation, land use diversification, climate change, production risk assessment, and so forth. Information from this data base can be supplied on diskettes by submitting a written request. 4 RESUME La banque de donnees sur les possibilities de production des terres (BDPPT) est un ensemble de donnees informatisees regroupant des renseignements sur les sols, Ie climat, la physiographie, l'utilisation des terres, les rendements optimaux dans des conditions ideales, les rendements culturaux reels et la degradation des sols dans toutes les regions canadiennes. Ces donnees sont traitees selon les unites graphiques utilisees sur la carte des sols du Canada, a l'echelle 1: 5000 000. D'autres types de donnees tirees d'etudes au cours desquelles on s I est servi des renseignements provenant des fichiers principaux ou ities a un autre genre d'information, p. ex., Ie Recensement de l'agriculture, les rapports de districts sur les cultures et autres, sont egalement incluses, mais elles sont mises en annexe. La premiere partie de cette publication donne un aperyu des fichiers fondamentaux regroupes dans la banque de donnees et enumere les elements que l'on trouve dans chaque fichier. La banque de donnees sur les possibilites de production des terres est la seule source d'information complete sur les ressources en terres au Canada. Ces renseignements ont servi a diverses etudes qui portaient sur les possibilites de rendement des cultures, la degradation des sols, la diversification de l'utilisation des terres, les changements climatiques, l'evaluation des risques a la production et ainsi de suite. Les renseignements contenus dans la banque sont disponibles sur disquette et on peut en faire la demande par ecrit. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank John Hardy for his work on the soil suitability tables, and Dr. R. deJong and Dr. A. Mack for reviewing the manuscript. The following people provided the data in each of the files mentioned in the handbook: R.B. Stewart and A. Bootsma Climate V. Kirkwood and J. Dumanski Soil Description, Soil Climate, CLI Capability for Agriculture V. Kirkwood Actual Yields, Provincial Proportions D.R. Coote Degradation R.B. Stewart and R. Muma Constraint - Free Yield J. Dumanski and J. Hardy Soil Suitability 7 INTRODUCTION The Land Potential Data Base for Canada (LPDB) is a computerized information base containing data about soil, climate, land degradation and modeled and actual crop yields for the major economically important crops in Canada. This information is summarized for each of the 755 soil map units designated by the Soils of Canada map (Clayton et al., 1977). This version of the data base has been updated from that developed as part of a global assessment of agroecological crop production potentials (FAO, 1978). It has also been put onto a different data base management system (DBMS) and it exists currently as several relations in a PC INFO data base management system. The organization of the data remains relational, but there have been some logical regroupings of data (eg. climate variables, soil degradation variables, etc.) into separate relations. Also, this revised LPDB includes actual yield data derived from provincial agricultural statistics, which were not in the original version. The common key remains the soil map unit. This new version of the data will be available for distribution on diskettes. The first section in this handbook contains information on each of the data files in the LPDB. Appendix I contains information on files which are associated with the LPDB, but because of their specialized nature have not been included in the main body of data. Appendix II contains a detailed description of each of the data files stored in the LPDB, including specific item names, formats, and brief definitions of the data to be found in each item. Extended definitions for some of the more complex data file items will be found in Appendix III. A complete alphabetic listing of all the items in all of the files in the data base will be found in Appendix IV, along with the name of the file in which it is to be found. DATA FILES CONTAINED IN THE LPDB CLIMATE VARIABLES (Data files CLlMATE5180 and GROWSEASCLIM) * The climate data in the LPDB have been updated to the 1951-80 climate normals (Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada), except for vapour pressure and windspeed, which remain as 1941-70 normals. The method used for averaging the climatic information from station data to polygons was improved, especially in the Prairie regions. In particular, instead of using 100 km grid averaged data, actual station data were used to represent many of the polygons.** *Data file names are given in the form in which they must be used during a PC INFO retrieval request. All listings of data files begin with MAPUNIT because the mapunit number is the standard reference for all variables in the LPDB. All other variables are subsequently listed alphabetically. **Certain of the map units are known to contain errors in climate data. These errors may be due to selection of inappropriate climate stations to represent these areas, and/or they may be caused by the methods of data analyses. These map units are B2012, D3124, F3060, H1028, H3048, and H3054. 8 Therefore the climatic variables cannot be compared directly between the old and new versions. Several new variables have also been included: corn heat units and days required to reach 2000, 2200 and 2300 CHU, degree days greater than 5.0°C, and daylength. For ease of use, the climate variables have been split into two files, one containing monthly data, and the other containing growing season information. These files are named CLIMATE5180 and GROWSEASCLIM respectively. The following is a list of the variables in CLIMATE5180: MAPUNIT DL(month) PE(month) RAIN(month) SMHC SNOW(month) SOLAR(month) TMAX(month) TMEAN(month) TMIN(month) VAPOUR(month) WIND(month) The definition of each of the above variables can be found in Appendix II, page 16. The following is a list of variables in GROWSEASCLIM: MAPUNIT AGSL CHU DEGDAY5 GSEND GSSTART MNDAILYPE MNDAILYRAD MNDAILYT MNDAYTIMET MNMAXDAILYT MNMINDAILYT N2000 N2200 N2300 RAIN VAP WIND The definition of each of the above variables can be found in Appendix II, page 17. SOIL DESCRIPTION AND SOIL CLIMATE VARIABLES (Data files SOILINVENTORY, ACRI and SOILCLIM) Most of these fields have been moved from the old to the new LPDB with no changes in name or format. The two files, SOILINVENTORY and SOILCLIM summarize the information available in Soils of Canada, Volume 2, Inventory (Clayton et aI., 1977). ACRI, the agroclimatic resource index, is a comparison of quality of the climate for agriculture in dif- ferent regions of Canada (Williams, 1975). A more comprehensive description of the ACRI variables may be found on page 41, Appendix III. It is possible to show extra detail for some of the information in the data base by attaching numbers to field names, ego LANDUSE1, LANDUSE2 etc. In these cases, the dominant description will be in field 1, while significant inclusions (if any) will be found in subsequently numbered fields. These numbers do not imply any weighting factor, nor do they specify spatial distribution of these attributes within each map unit. 9 The following is a list of variables in SOILINVENTORY: MAPUNIT DIVISION DOMSTI DOMSTIM DOMST2 DOMST2M DOMST3 ELEVHI ELEVLO FAONUMOD FAOSLCL FAOSTI FAOST2 FAOST3 FAOTEXT GREATGR LANDFRMI LANDFRM2 LANDFRM3 LANDUSEI LANDUSE2 LANDUSE3 LANDUSE4 LATDEG LATMIN LONGDEG LONGMIN PHASE PMl PM2 PM3 PM4 PMlMOD PM2MOD REGION SIGSTI SIGSTIM SIGST2 SIGST3 SOILAREA SOILUNIT SUBSTI SUBSTIM SUBST2 TEXTURE 1 TEXTURE2 TOPOCLAS XCOORD YCOORD Definitions for these variables may be found in Appendix II, starting on page 18.