Minnesota River Assessment Project Report: Land Use Assessment

This component of the Minnesota River Assessment Project was intended to identify and quantify nonpoint sources of pollution from major and minor watersheds. Four methodologies were developed and tested from 1989 through 1993: Level I sought to rank the watersheds by potential for nonpoint-source pollution; Level II attempted to identify the most cost effective agricultural best management practices to improve water quality; Level III involved a comprehensive assessment of individual point- and nonpoint-sources of pollutions within a minor watershed through landowner interviews, visual assessments, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis; and Level IV employed aerial photography and photo interpretation to obtain land-cover and land-use information. This volume includes extensive sections on each of the four methodologies, detailing purpose, findings, and recommendations for each.