Cold-Weather Crop Suitability Modelling

Abstract

This article presents ArcGIS Pro workflow results aimed at rating and mapping cold-weather crop suitability from 0% to 100% at 1-m elevation resolution for the Province of New Brunswick (NB). This rating accounts for variations by soil conditions (texture, coarse fragments, depth, calcareousness, drainage, slope), growing degree days (GDD) and frost-free days (FFD) from within fields to across regions. The ratings so produced reflect a significant part of farm and farm/woodlot property assessment values as these also vary by area and building footprint. While the soil properties for texture, coarse fragments, depth, and calcareousness vary by NB soil association mapping units, within-field suitabilities also vary by slope from flat to steep and by drainage as it correlates across the terrain by depth-to-water (DTW) from very poor to poor, imperfect, moderate, well and excessive. Areas marked by 1.5 < DTW < 10 m away from permanent flow channels, wetlands and open water bodies are generally not too wet and not too dry. Areas with slopes > 10% have low to no suitability because of slope-increased soil erosion and trafficability risks. The number of growing-degree and frost-free days across NB were rated to be sufficient for cold weather cropping, except marginally so at the high-elevation locations.