Methods
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The operations and projects of the Data Sciences Services (DSS) trace back to the 1930's, when the Master Sample of Agriculture was jointly developed by USDA and the Survey Section of ISU's Statistical Laboratory. The Master Sample of Agriculture is a national area sample of land, which has featured in numerous surveys of American agriculture. It marks the beginning of USDA-CSSM collaboration that has lasted over nine decades and going on strong.
Today, DSS focuses on providing a comprehensive suite of statistical, GIS, and software services to the legislatively mandated National Resources Inventory (NRI), a longitudinal survey designed to assess conditions and trends for soil, water and related natural resources on non-federal lands in the United States. DSS is comprised of the following teams: Data Analytics, GIS, IT Services, Research and Estimation, and Software Development.
Recently, DSS’ workforce across diverse technical fields has also enabled it to branch into new services such as app building, data-digging, advanced analysis relevant to big data and machine learning. DSS’ current clients include federal agencies such as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), State agencies such as Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IA-DNR), and non-profit organizations such as Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium.
