Agroclimatic zones of Norway – classification of agricultural land based on crop models and subsidy claim data.

Authors: Dorothée Kolberg , Eva S. F. Heggem, Anne K. B. Olsen, Mats Höglind, Hugh Riley and Sigridur Dalmannsdottir.

In Norway agroclimatic zones (ACZs) are a valuable tool for national analyses in subject areas concerning optimized management of agricultural land resources. However, current Norwegian ACZs have been criticized for an outdated standard climate normal, limited representation of local climatic variation, lack of important model parameters, and weak methodological documentation. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present and document new ACZs for Norway that address these weaknesses. The most significant methodological updates include the use of the latest standard climate normal, an expanded set of weather data variables, downscaling of weather data to 250 m hexagons including vertical temperature gradients, and the incorporation of phenological crop models for wheat, barley, and forage grass. Crop models were calibrated with number of grass harvests at research stations and subsidy claim data for cereal production. Modeled zones for the three crops were combined into general ACZs. Example maps of crop zones and new ACZs for selected regions and the whole country are presented. Updates, applications, and methodological limitations of the new ACZs are discussed.

This file contains one row per grid cell from the ACZ export table. The dataset was derived from the PostgreSQL/PostGIS table prior to map dissolving and clipping to water bodies.