Road Ruggedness Scale
This indicator reports road ruggedness or topographic variation. Data was obtained from the USDA Area and Road Ruggedness Scales.
Source
Source Description
The Economic Research Service (ERS) by the USDA anticipates trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision making.
Methodology
This indicator reports the topographic variation, or “ruggedness,” for census tracts across 50 States and Washington, DC. The Road Ruggedness Scale (RRS) has five categories based on the changes in elevation beneath roads and classifies census tracts as: (1) level; (2) nearly level; (3) slightly rugged; (4) moderately rugged; and (5) highly rugged.
Terrain Ruggedness Index (TRI): A grid-cell-level measure of elevation change between a grid cell and its adjacent grid cells. TRIs were used as a building block to create the categorical scales.
This indicator is available at the following subscription levels:
- Premium (currently viewing this indicator and report combination)