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This orthoimagery dataset was acquired by the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) during the 2018 agricultural growing season and through the winter and spring of 2019 (May 2018 - April 2019), resulting in a mix of leaf-on/leaf-off conditions statewide in Texas. The entire dataset is available at 60-cm (2-foot) pixel resolution. This pixel resolution allows the user to identify features on the ground such as sheds, helipad markings, driveways, car ports, medians, and bike lanes. The entire dataset is available as a 4-band (RGBIR) product which allows the user to display the imagery in natural color (RGB) or color infrared (IRRG). Flight date is in each filename as YYYYMMDD, and each image tile covers one-4th of a USGS Digital Orthophoto Quad (DOQ), resulting in a DOQQ or approximately 16 square miles with minimum 300-meter buffers. All individual tile images are rectified in the UTM coordinate system, NAD 83, and cast into a single predetermined UTM zone.
NAIP is administered by the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) through the Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The program was established to support FSA's strategic goals centered on agricultural production. The orthoimagery are used as a base layer for GIS programs in FSA's County Service Centers including maintenance of the Common Land Unit (CLU) boundaries. However, there are many other potential uses and applications of NAIP data as a statewide base layer of imagery in Texas. NAIP imagery are used for a wide variety of purposes throughout the state including land use planning, natural resource assessment, energy production, transportation, emergency management, ecology, air quality monitoring, etc. NAIP acquisitions in Texas are contracted based on available funding and the FSA imagery acquisition cycle. Since 2008, NAIP statewide imagery have been acquired for Texas on a 2-year cycle. This refresh rate allows the user to conduct change detection studies that can be used to monitor climate patterns such as drought or to show the rate of manmade growth on the fringes of urban development. |