PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - T.L. Veith
AU  - J.E. Richards
AU  - S.C. Goslee
AU  - A.S. Collick
AU  - R.B. Bryant
AU  - D.A. Miller
AU  - B.W. Bills
AU  - A.R. Buda
AU  - R.L. Sebring
AU  - P.J.A. Kleinman
TI  - Navigating spatial and temporal complexity in developing a long-term land use database for an agricultural watershed
AID  - 10.2489/jswc.70.5.288
DP  - 2015 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
PG  - 288--296
VI  - 70
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.jswconline.org/content/70/5/288.short
4100  - http://www.jswconline.org/content/70/5/288.full
AB  - No comprehensive protocols exist for the collection, standardization, and storage of agronomic management information into a database that preserves privacy, maintains data uncertainty, and translates everyday decisions into quantitative values. This paper describes the development of a relational database intended to meet the agronomic and ecosystem interests of potential users from a long-term experimental watershed located in Pennsylvania, United States' Ridge and Valley physiographic province. We discuss the type and complexity of the data, which has historically been documented in free-form surveys collected through discussion with farmers. We detail the development process of a spatially and temporally explicit land management database and discuss the challenges in standardizing, without generalizing, 13 years of historic free-form data for 13 farms and 315 fields. Finally, we provide examples at field, farm, and watershed scales of how this database serves as a foundation for other data sets and modeling efforts that support research aimed at helping farmers meet long-term production, land stewardship, and water quality goals.