Timeline

1933 - The first Statistical Laboratory (Stat Lab) of the United States was established at Iowa State College with George W. Snedecor as its founding director. Other giants in statistics who taught at Stat Lab included R. A. Fisher and William G. Cochran.

1938 - The Survey Section of Stat Lab was established as a part of a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

1940s - The Survey Section began in-person surveys 

1944 - The Survey Section developed the Master Sample of Agriculture in collaboration with the USDA and the U.S. Census Bureau. A national area sample of land featuring random sampling, it provided the foundation for area sampling methods and statistical estimation for sample surveys. It has been subsequently utilized in numerous surveys of American agriculture.

1956 - The Survey Section developed statistical sampling procedures used in the 1958 Conservation Needs Inventory (CNI) for the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS, which later become the Natural Resources Conservation Services, or NRCS).

1977 - CNI became the National Resources Inventory (NRI). 

Work on the NRI is legislatively mandated and continues today.

Long-term research with U.S. Census Bureau on sampling and methodology began. 

1970 - The Survey Research Services (SRS) unit of Stat Lab added telephone based surveys. 

1972 - The Survey Section developed the National soils database with the USDA-SCS.

1985 - The first congressional Farm Bill that made significant use of the National Resources Inventory estimates.

1987 - Remote sensing first used to collect a portion of the NRI data.

SRS initiated multi-year surveys with the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institute of Health. 

Remote sensing and computer based data collection were fully implemented across the NRI.

SRS established the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) Lab. 

2000 - NRI data collection was converted from five year survey cycle to an annual cycle. 

2002 - The Survey Section of the Stat Lab officially became the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (CSSM).

2003 - SRS began using online surveys.

2003 - CSSM began to provide statistical and software support to multi-year Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP).

2004 - CSSM and National Resources Conservation Service developed Geospatial inventory techniques.

2010 - NRI started including point locations integrated with digitized soil information.

CSSM began to provide statistical and software support to multi-year Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Rangeland Surveys.

CSSM started to build customized applications and software for the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence.

The team that focuses on the National Resources Inventory at CSSM started to be called Data Science Services (DSS). 

Land Use and Cover Inventory Database (LUCID) was launched in 2023 to facilitate direct queries of the NRI estimates.

CSSM is planning to annualize the output cycles of the NRI to make it more timely and useful.