For lands used to produce crops, CEC developed a suitability
model to simultaneously evaluate several factors that impact an area’s relative
implication for croplands. In
the CEC land use screens, implication is defined as a possible
significance or a likely consequence of an action. For example, planning for
energy infrastructure development in areas with more factors that support
high-value croplands has implications for opportunities to preserve
agricultural land. The variables
used in the CEC Cropland Index Model contain information on soil quality (CA
Revised Storie Index, Electrical Conductivity, and Sodium Adsorption Ratio),
farmland designations (Prime Farmland, Unique Farmland and Farmland of
Statewide Importance), and current existence of crops (as indicated by the
California Statewide Crop Mapping). The
CEC Cropland Index Model does not include statewide information for
grazing lands or rangelands, and it is only applied to solar technology.
Each input data layer is transformed onto a common scale
and weighted according to each dataset’s relative importance. The result is a
summation of the input data layers into a single-gridded map. This final model
output provides a numerically weighted index of importance for croplands
at a given location. The classified version of the model output, given in
this dataset, partitions the CEC Cropland Index Model at the mean into areas of
high and low implication. The high implication area is used as an exclusion in
the CEC Land Use Screens for solar technology. These regions have a relatively
higher implication for cropland than the lower implication region.
The table below provides data sources that the CEC
Cropland Index Model relies on. For a complete description of the model and its
use in the 2023 CEC Land-Use Screens, please
refer to the Land Use Screens Staff Report in the CEC Energy Planning Library.
Dataset Name
Source
Usage
Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) Database
Soil Survey Staff. 2020. "The Gridded Soil Survey Geographic (gSSURGO) Database for California." United States Department of Agriculture, Natural
Resources Conservation Service. https://gdg.sc.egov.usda.gov/
Provides CA Revised Storie Index, Electrical
Conductivity, and Sodium Adsorption Ratio for the CEC Cropland Index Model
for the Core and SB 100 Terrestrial Climate Resilience Screens for solar
resource potential
California Important Farmland
- "2018 California Important Farmland.” Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program."
California Department of Conservation. https://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/fmmp
Prime Farmland, Unique Farmland, and Farmland of
Statewide Importance is used in the CEC Cropland Index Model for the Core and
SB 100 Terrestrial Climate Resilience Screens for solar resource potential
California Statewide Crop Mapping (2019)
- "2019 California
Statewide Crop Mapping."
California Department of Water Resources. https://data.cnra.ca.gov/dataset/statewide-crop-mapping
The footprint is used as part of the mask for the CEC Cropland
Index Model’s domain of analysis for the Core and SB 100 Terrestrial Climate
Resilience Screens for solar resource potential
