Environmental Benefits Index Top Five Percent Areas (EBI300T5)

This layer is based on the Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) data layer developed by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) and the University of Minnesota. More information about the EBI is available from the BWSR web site here:<br/><br/>www.bwsr.state.mn.us/ecological_ranking<br/><br/>The data layer ebi300t5 was created by selecting the five percent of the area of each major watershed (HUC8) in Minnesota with the highest EBI scores. A conditional statement was then used to import land cover data from the 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) into the highlighted areas. The NLCD used was reclassed from 16 to seven land cover classes according to the following:<br/><br/>NLCD | Reclassed NLCD<br/>11 Water<br/>21, 22, 23, 24 Urban<br/>31 Barren<br/>41, 42, 43, 52 Forest<br/>71, 81 GrassHay<br/>82 Crops<br/>90, 95 Wetlands