Project Summary: Tile Drainage Project

Background

Licensed agricultural tile drainage contractors create plans for numerous agricultural tile drainage systems and install thousands of feet of agricultural drainage tile each year. As a requirement of their license, each contractor must report to OMAFRA the location of the area that has been tiled. The information collected each year is submitted as a small hand sketch of the drained area (Figure 1). As time permits, the sketched area has been re-mapped onto Mylar so that white prints showing areas of tile drainage can be produced on demand. In cooperation with the MNR and AAFC, OMAFRA has begun compiling a high quality, detailed, geo-spatial tile drain database that consolidates existing tile drain information with GPS collected data.

Many drainage contractors have begun to use GPS to map tile drainage installations to a high level of accuracy and precision.

Figure 1. Tile Drainage Record

Objective

The objective of the Tile Drainage Project is to apply Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to support the standardized collection of drainage information from the drainage contractors. The tile drain data will evolve to a digital database that is spatially accurate, seamless throughout Southern Ontario, current and easily accessible in digital and paper formats (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Agricultural Field Tile Drainage Available in Digital GIS Data Format

Application

Good tile drainage information allows for more knowledgeable decision making. Improved decision making can increase agricultural profitability, assist in future drainage planning, and aid in the siting of agricultural facilities.

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