This layer shows mapped agricultural ditches within Maryland, capturing human-made drainage features used to manage water on agricultural lands. The data represent the spatial extent of agricultural drainage networks derived at a hyper-resolution scale and clipped to the Maryland boundary from the Chesapeake Bay watershed dataset (2008–2021). These features help identify areas of managed drainage that influence soil moisture, runoff, and potential pathways for nutrient transport from agricultural fields across the state.
The data are sourced from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Chesapeake Bay Hyper-Resolution Hydrography Database, developed in partnership with the Chesapeake Conservancy and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) through cooperative and interagency agreements with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).