Accessible BMP data in the NYC watershed ag program Steve Pacenka, volunteer data censor with WAP and Cornell BEE staff 10 June 2009 for CEAP review

Basic WAC data policy Intention: protect privacy of farmers Intention: maintain separation between farmers and regulators Default: all data confidential between farmer and selected WAP staff

Access to data for science (2007) Release mechanism: signatures including each covered farmer access by named individuals only Bulk data: censored detail data if not traceable to farm directly or indirectly Cornell received censored detail data for Cannonsville farms, and uncensored data from two farms.

BMP related data held at WAC (as of early 2008) Nutrient management plans - full detail, very complete history; xls and mdb files Field maps - good map history since about 2000; ESRI shapefiles BMPs - WAC approval records, contracts, engineering documents, spending spreadsheets; eclectic storage, hard for someone not knowing the farm to identify history and BMP locations

Data released to Cornell: counts of BMP types by major subbasin From a payment tracking database Each of five subbasins of Cannonsville Uncensored counts except low end blurred as 0-6 to prevent indirect disclosure. 128 distinct types Text description by code, chosen manually as representative of several descriptions used for that code in WAC data Nothing about dimensions or costs of BMPs (data are in WAC's set, but not well proofread)

Structure of BMP tallies NRCSCODEHUC10HUC20HUC30HUC40HUC / (Numbers not available to people who have not signed data agreement.) Example description: NRCSCODE 194= "Barnyard water management system"

Five HUC subbasins for BMP tally

Data released to Cornell: field level details Data: Field size, and presence/absence of certain funded BMPs: crop rotation, riparian buffer, drainage, tree planting (w/description) Field is not identified spatially. Time when BMP established not available. This was not ready for release due to weak data quality – fixable, expensive; BMP records are tagged with a field ID when they are paid for, but this ID was never updated -- thus BMPs can disappear on later maps.

Data released to DEP from nutrient management plans Records: one per field per year covered by any NMP; Fields identified by an obfuscated ID that is consistent over time; doesn't work for split and joined fields Attributes: crop, soil type, dryness index, Morgan’s P, rounded animal units on associated farm, computed P indices, rough manure P application rate, old hydrologic sensitivity code, a couple of funded BMPs Future?: improved time tracing using consecutive map overlays, data, hopefully 1999

Discussion: Usability of WAC BMP Records in Modeling BMP counts for the five subbasins. Make friends with more than two farmers. Fund WAP (if willing) to improve pilot BMP database quality. Associate field-level BMPs with points or polygons. Provide other field attributes as in the NMP retrieval.