Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Brief Description

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources provides data regarding natural aspects such as streams, forest reserve programs, public areas, lakes and wetlands.

Wetlands Measure

Wetland_Acres_Prop: Calculated the proportion of wetlands acres per county to the total acres per county.

final_merge['Wetland_Acres_Prop'] = final_merge['Wetland_Acres'] / final_merge['county_area']

Source: Wetlands in Iowa

Forestry Measure

forest_acres_prop_county: Calculated the proportion of forest acres per county to the total acres per county. The most updated year for forest acres we have is 2020.

final_merge['2020_Forest_Acres_Prop'] = final_merge['2020_Forest_Acres'] / final_merge['county_area']

Source: Forestry in Iowa

Total Stream Length

Stream Length in Miles: Using R, find the geometry of counties (using counties() of tigris) and use st_intersection() to take the geometry intersection of the streams and counties. Apply st_length() to calculate the length of streams and group by county.

Source: Streams in Iowa

Proportion of Lakes in Iowa

Proportion of Lakes: Using R, find the lake_area of each lake using st_area of the geometry column. Group by county and sum up all the lake areas. Calculate the proportion of lake by dividing the lake_area by the county area (taken from counties() function in tigris package)

Source: Lakes in Iowa

Proportion of Public Areas in Iowa

Proportion of Public Areas: Using R, find the public_area of each lake using st_area of the geometry column. Group by county and sum up all the public areas. Calculate the proportion of lake by dividing the public_area by the county area (taken from counties() function in tigris package)

Source: Public Areas in Iowa