Methodology and Interpretation

AGCSL3 - Percent cropland on steep slopes
The proportion of each grid cell reporting unit that has agriculture cropland land cover on slopes greater then 3 percent is calculated using an overlay. The area where crops and slopes over 3 percent are coincident is summed and divided by total reporting unit area.

Quantile: Each class contains an approximately equal number (count) of features. A quantile classification is well-suited to linearly distributed data. Because features are grouped by the number within each class, the resulting map can be misleading, in that similar features can be separated into adjacent classes, or features with widely different values can be lumped into the same class. This distortion can be minimized by increasing the number of classes.

Natural Breaks: Classes are based on natural groupings of data values. Natural break points are identified by looking for groupings and patterns inherent in the data. The features are divided into classes whose boundaries are set where there are relatively large jumps in the distribution of data values.

* EMAP-West Landscape Metrics Metadata (FGDC)