Monitoring Farm Reservoirs

Irrigation is crucial to agriculture in eastern Arkansas, but groundwater in the Mississippi River alluvial aquifer is being depleted faster than it can be replenished. To help reduce the need for groundwater, hundreds of onfarm reservoirs, or surface water impoundments, have been built in the area to hold rainwater and runoff for use during the dry season; however, an exact number, and their effect on the surrounding environment, has not been clear. More knowledge helps land and water managers make strategic planning decisions. University of Arkansas researchers analyzed 20 years of Landsat data using the USGS Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) algorithm to determine the increasing number and location of reservoirs in Arkansas County (West and Kovacs, 2018). In a study of eastern Arkansas, U.S. Department of Agriculture and university researchers turned to DSWE and another Landsat-based dataset to characterize reservoir changes over 23 years, including seasonality and variability in temperature and precipitation (Perin and others, 2021).

Tracking Crops

Arkansas was one of the few States included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s first Cropland Data Layer in 1997. Now, the Cropland Data Layer provides reports for all States on crop type, acreage, and yield based on a foundation of Landsat and other data. The annual data layer reveals what is being planted, how much, and the location, as well as where land use has changed. This information about the food supply helps agricultural producers and others in the industry make prudent land management decisions (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2022).

Understanding Urban Growth

Northwestern Arkansas, home to the University of Arkansas and headquarters of several large national and international companies, has experienced notable population growth since the mid-1990s. Viewing this growth over time with Landsat imagery can help city officials understand urban development patterns and their effect on the residents and surrounding environment. University of Arkansas researchers used Landsat to assess this area from 1995 to 2015 and to learn the timing and geographic characteristics of the growth patterns (Reynolds and others, 2017).

Landsat—Critical Information Infrastructure for the Nation

Landsat is the most widely used land remote sensing data source within Federal civilian agencies. Local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies use Landsat to monitor and forecast a wide range of land surface phenomena. Information from Landsat contributes to day-to-day decisions on land, water, and resource use that protect life and property; safeguard the environment; advance science, technology, and education; support climate resiliency; and grow the U.S. economy. Landsat’s imagery provides a landscape-level view of land surface, inland lake, and coastal processes, both natural and human-induced. Landsat enables us to better understand the scope, nature, and speed of change to the natural and built environment.

Businesses draw upon Landsat data to provide customer-specific applications to improve logistics, resource allocation, and investment decisions. Commercial space imaging firms leverage Landsat data to refine product offerings and support new information services. A 2017 USGS study determined the total annual economic benefit of Landsat data in the United States. to be $2.06 billion, far surpassing its development and operating costs (Straub and others, 2019).

Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 provide 8-day repeat coverage of the Earth’s land surfaces. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the USGS are currently reviewing the findings from a joint Architecture Study Team, which will inform the design and implementation approach for Landsat Next, the follow-on mission to Landsat 9. Landsat 9 and its successors are planned to provide a sustainable, space-based system to extend the 50-year Landsat series of high-quality global land imaging measurements—the world’s longest time series of the Earth’s land surface.

The long-term availability of consistent and accurate Landsat data, combined with a no-cost data policy, allows users to analyze extensive geographic areas and better understand and manage long-term trends in land surface change. New cloud computing and data analytics technologies use Landsat data in a wide range of decision-support tools for Government and industry. Much like global positioning systems and weather data, Landsat data are used every day to help us better understand our dynamic planet.