Land Treatment Digital Library Data Entry and Archive System: Data Storage TablesEntry ID: USGS_FRESC_LTDL_Data_Storage_Tables
Abstract: Across the country, public land managers make hundreds of decisions each year that influence landscapes and ecosystems within the lands they manage. Many of these decisions involve vegetation manipulations known as land treatments. Land treatments include activities such as removal or alteration of plant biomass, seeding burned areas, and herbicide applications. Data on these land treatments are ... usually stored at local offices, and gathering information across large spatial areas can be difficult. There is a need to centralize and store treatment data for Federal agencies involved in land treatments because these data are useful to land managers for policy and management and to scientists for developing sampling designs and studies.
The Land Treatment Digital Library (LTDL) was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to catalog information about land treatments on Federal lands in the western United States for all interested parties. The flexible framework of the library allows for the storage of a wide variety of data in different formats. The LTDL currently stores previously established land treatments or what often are called legacy data. The project was developed and has been refined based on feedback from partner agencies and stakeholders, with opportunity for the library holdings to expand as new information becomes available.
The library contains data in text, tabular, spatial, and image formats. Specific examples include project plans and implementation reports, monitoring data, spatial data files from geographic information systems, digitized paper maps, and digital images of land treatments. The data are entered by USGS employees and are accessible through a searchable web site. The LTDL can be used to respond to information requests, conduct analyses and other forms of information syntheses, produce maps, and generate reports for DOI managers and scientists and other authorized users.
Data are contained within a MS Access database, an ArcGIS file geodatabase, and a folder and file structure. The library is an interactive database allowing users to enter land treatments across the entire US and going as far back in time as records exists. The LTDL incorporates data in text, tabular, spatial, and image formats. Currently, the main dataset consists of BLM land treatments from 1932 to present across the western US available to authorized personnel. A portable database is also available for individual use
Purpose: The database is designed to allow storage and centralization of legacy land treatment data so that the data can be centralized and easily accessed and queried for use in scientific studies and land management.
FRESC Study ID YB00CTU, Task 700
Data Set Citation
Dataset Originator/Creator: David Pilliod, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
Dataset Title: Land Treatment Digital Library Data Entry and Archive System: Data Storage Tables
Data Presentation Form: Maps and DataOnline Resource: http://ltdl.wr.usgs.gov/default.aspx
Start Date: 1932-01-01Stop Date: 2013-12-31
ISO Topic Category
No field observations were made to determine accuracy of data. Some measures were taken to compare maps, GIS, and documentation to ensure the data was consistent.
Tests are continually being run to fix errors within the BLM dataset itself and bugs within the scripting program of the LTDL. Because the LTDL continually grows with data additions, updates are constantly being made.
Every attempt was made to not collect or, if collected, to redact personal identifiable information (PII), sensitive archeological information, and other sensitive information.
Access Constraints Database system (without data) is available to all users. Data for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that has been entered into the Land Treatment Digital Library (LTDL) by USGS employees at the Snake River Field Station, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (FRESC) is available in a limited capacity to all users and full data access is available to authorized personnel only.
Use Constraints The BLM data use decisions are determined by the Technical Advisory Committee and adhere to the MOU between BLM and USGS.
Data Set Progress
Distribution Format: MS Access Database, ArcGIS File Geodatabase, Folder and File Structure
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Email: dpilliod at usgs.gov
970 Lusk Street
Province or State: Idaho
Extended Metadata Properties
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Creation and Review Dates
DIF Creation Date: 2013-10-07
Last DIF Revision Date: 2016-11-18