Biennial Agricultural Water Survey (AWS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 2007

Reference period of change - 2018

Target population - We didn't use the list of water permit applicants from the province of Ontario for this cycle

Sampling - We did not use the Ontario water permit applicants for this cycle

Reference period of change - 2016

Target population - Unlike previous cycles of the agricultural water survey, it doesn't only use the Census of Agriculture to build the frame (target population of the survey). In addition to the 2011 and 2016 Census of Agriculture, we used a list of water permit applicants for the province of Ontario

Reference period of change - 2014

Target population - New for the 2014 AWS, units which reported owning irrigation equipment but did not report any irrigation areas were no longer included in the initial survey frame.

Reference period of change - 2012

Target population - Following the analysis of the 2010 survey results, a number of changes were made:

- Any unit which reported greenhouse, sod, nursery, mushroom or Christmas tree operations on the 2011 Census of Agriculture was excluded. In the 2010 survey, the unit had to be included on the Greenhouse, Sod and Nursery Survey frame to be excluded.
- All units for which the 2011 Census of Agriculture irrigation data was completely imputed were excluded.
- All units which reported only irrigation area in the "Other" category on the 2011 Census of Agriculture and did not report owning any irrigation equipment were excluded.
- All units in an additional northern drainage region were excluded (Peace-Athabasca (6)).

Instrument design - The order of appearance of some questions was changed to provide a better flow. The separate sections on hay and improved pasture that appeared in the 2010 questionnaire were combined with a silage crop type into a new collective category called "forage crops" on the 2012 questionnaire. The questions on the irrigation method used for each crop category were consolidated onto one page along with the definitions of the irrigation methods, rather than appearing on separate pages. As well as collecting the monthly quantity of water for each crop category as was done in 2010, the new questionnaire includes the monthly irrigated land area associated with each monthly volume. For the questions on sources of water used for irrigation, the respondent is now asked to indicate the percentages of the total that came from each source, rather than simply indicate which sources were used, as was done in 2010. The questions on the treatment of water used for irrigation that appeared in 2010 were dropped. A new comments section was added as well as a question on the time required for the respondent to collect the data and complete the questionnaire.

Data collection will be delayed approximately two months compared to the 2010 survey in order to get more accurate information on late-season irrigation.

Reference period of change - 2010

Target population - In the 2010 survey, the operations excluded from the survey based on their location changed from those located in the three territories to those located in the six most northern drainage regions.

Sampling - In the 2010 survey, the geographic area on which the stratification and allocation were based was the drainage region rather than the province. There continued to be four strata within each drainage region based on predicted water use, but in 2010 a new model was used to predict this value.

Data sources - The 2007 AWS was a CATI survey while the 2010 AWS is a mail out - mail back survey with some CATI capability for follow-up.