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Tools


The tools presented below represent a portion of the tools available for the climate, agriculture and forestry sectors. The tools range from specialized calculators to maps, models and datasets estimating a variety of outputs (e.g., crop production, greenhouse gas flux, and species distribution). Certain tools may be more relevant to land managers to aid in year-to-year decision-making, while others are more useful for researchers studying agriculture and climate change. Keep in mind that all tools have limitations and make assumptions that may not be appropriate for an entity’s climate/region/crop/soil type. USDA does not endorse the tools presented below. The tool list is provided for informational purposes only, and is not exhaustive.

  • ShoreZone

    Grewingk Glacier River, Kachemak Bay, Cook Inlet. June 24, 2019. Credit: Create Commons Image from shorezone.org

    The ShoreZone map tool can assist coastal managers in locating high-resolution images and video of the entire Pacific coast, which can be used for adaptation planning, restoration, conservation, recreation, and more.

  • U.S. Drought Monitor

    Drought

    The U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) is a map released every Thursday, showing parts of the U.S. that are in drought. The map uses five classifications: abnormally dry (D0), showing areas that may be going into or are coming…

  • Future Crop Suitability Tool

    Vineyard with rows of flowers to support pollinators

    The Specialty Crop Suitability Tool provides mapped and graphical summaries of the climatic suitability for cultivating selected tree/shrub specialty crops across the west. The mapping and graphical interface, along…

  • Rangeland Analysis Platform

    RAP Icon

    The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) is an interactive web application designed to assist in managing and monitoring America's rangelands.

  • AgRisk Viewer

    Field

    The AgRisk Viewer provides an accessible and discoverable web platform for crop insurance loss data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA). Data are available from the county to…

  • Climate Perspectives (CLIMPER)

    Screen grab from the Southeast Regional Climate Center's Southeast Climate Perspectives website

    The Climate Perspectives (CLIIMPER) tool was created by the Southeast Regional Climate Center and the State Climate Office of North Carolina, and provides a way to compare current and forecast weather conditions with a…

  • Grass-Cast: Grassland Productivity Forecast

    An example set of 3 Grass-Cast maps showing what conditions would be if the precipitation received from the date that the maps were created and August 31st is above, near, or below normal, and approximatley what the grassland production in an area would be by percent compared to its 38-year average.

    Every spring, ranchers face the same difficult challenge – trying to guess how much grass will be available for livestock to graze during the upcoming summer. An innovative Grassland Productivity Forecast or “Grass-Cast…