National Resources Inventory

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has conducted a National Resources Inventory (NRI) of the country's natural resources every five years from 1982 to 1997. In 2000, the NRI changed to a continuous survey, conducted annually. Section staff support these efforts by assuming primary responsibility for sample design and selection, forms design, data processing, statistical estimation, and by conducting statistical research on sampling and estimation procedures for these surveys.

The 2000 NRI was based on a stratified sample of about 42,000 area segments located throughout the U.S. and territories. That survey served as the first year of a transition to a Continuous NRI survey. The Continuous NRI includes the area segments from the 2000 NRI plus a supplemental panel of area segments of about 30,000.

Ongoing cooperative research in sampling, imputation, and regression estimation methods will be applied to the Continuous NRI.

NRCS employees are stationed at CSSM as collaborators to assist with research and to operate as liaisons in conducting surveys.

For more information, see the Quick Summary.

Contact:
Jim Kienzler, Project Manager
216E Snedecor Hall, Ames, IA 50011
Phone: 515-294-5242 / Fax: 515-294-2456 / e-mail: jkienzle@iastate.edu