R-Factor for the Conterminous United States

The rainfall-runoff erosivity factor (R-Factor) quantifies the effects of raindrop impacts and reflects the amount and rate of runoff associated with the rain. The R-factor is one of the parameters used by the Revised Unified Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to estimate annual rates of erosion. This product is a raster representation of R-Factor derived from isoerodent maps published in the Agriculture Handbook Number 703 (Renard et al.,1997). Lines connecting points of equal rainfall ersoivity are called isoerodents. The iserodents plotted on a map of the coterminous U.S. were digitized, then values between these lines were obtained by linear interpolation. The final R-Factor data are in raster GeoTiff format at 800 meter resolution in Albers Conic Equal Area, GRS80, NAD83.

These data are represented in raster format for use with the Open source Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (OpenNSPECT).

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Renard, K.G., Foster, C.R., Weesies, G.A., McCool, D.K., Yoder, D.C., (1997). Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook Number 703, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, p.47-51.

These data are derived from isoerodent maps published in the Agriculture Handbook number 703 (Renard et al., 1997). Renard, K.G., Foster, C.R., Weesies, G.A., McCool, D.K., Yoder, D.C., (1997). Predicting Soil Erosion by Water: A Guide to Conservation Planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook Number 703, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, p. 47-51.

Any conclusions drawn from the analysis of this information are not the responsibility of NOAA, the Office for Coastal Management or its partners.

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MapWindow GIS 8.x

The cell values in this product represent R-Factor which is an erosivity index for rainfall and runoff. The units are (hundreds ft-tonf-in)/(ac-h-yr).

This map is an approximation of spatial rainfall-runoff values

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Cloud Cover: 0

All pixels within the coterminous U.S. boundary contain R-Factor values.

Tests for logical consistency indicate that all row and column positions in the selected latitude/longitude window contain data. Conversion and integration with vector files indicates that all positions are consistent with earth coordinates covering the same area.