Transition Pathways to Sustainable Agricultural Water Management: A Review of Integrated Modeling Approaches

Agricultural water management (AWM) is an interdisciplinary concern, cutting across traditional domains such as agronomy, climatology, geology, economics, and sociology. Each of these disciplines has developed numerous process-based and empirical models for AWM. However, models that simulate all major hydrologic, water quality, and crop growth processes in agricultural systems are still lacking. As computers become more powerful, more researchers are choosing to integrate existing models to account for these major processes rather than building new cross-disciplinary models. Model integration carries the hope that, as in a real system, the sum of the model will be greater than the parts. However, models based upon simplified and unrealistic assumptions of physical or empirical processes can generate misleading results which are not useful for informing policy. In this article, we use literature and case studies from the High Plains Aquifer and Southeastern United States regions to elucidate the challenges and opportunities associated with integrated modeling for AWM and recommend conditions in which to use integrated models. Additionally, we examine the potential contributions of integrated modeling to AWM — the actual practice of conserving water while maximizing productivity

Irrigation Organizations: Water Inflows and Outflows

The USDA’s 2019 Survey of Irrigation Organizations provides information on the quantities of water supplied to and delivered by irrigation water delivery organizations. This report examines these delivery organizations inflows and outflows and the extent of water transfers both within and across delivery organizations. Inflows to irrigation water delivery organizations make up nearly half of the average surface freshwater withdrawals in the United States and are especially important in more arid western regions. Much of the water flowing into delivery organizations’ systems comes from Federal water projects or is directly withdrawn from natural surface water bodies. Most water delivered by organizations goes to farms and ranches, with the remainder going to municipalities and domestic or other users. Among those organizations engaging in water transfers in 2019, transfers between water users within an organization were more common than external transfers (leases) between delivery organizations and other organizations or entities. However, since external transfers tend to be large quantities of water, the total amount of water transferred by users within organizations was smaller than the total water leased by organizations

The Stocking Impact and Financial-Climate Risk of the Livestock Forage Disaster Program

Drought imposes significant costs on the U.S. agricultural sector, particularly for livestock producers who rely on precipitation to grow forage. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several programs to mitigate the economic costs of drought. One of these programs is the USDA, Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), which provides payments to livestock producers impacted by drought. Program evaluation results suggest that producers in drought affected counties that received LFP payments achieved similar herd retention and liquidation outcomes as producers in less drought impacted counties that were ineligible for LFP payments. Simulation modeling results in this report suggest that LFP poses a financial-climate risk to the Federal budget. Depending on the future increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, annual Federal Government expenditures on LFP are projected to increase above the current average expenditures by 45–135 percent (in 2022 dollars) by 2100

The Stocking Impact and Financial-Climate Risk of the Livestock Forage Disaster Program

Drought imposes significant costs on the U.S. agricultural sector, particularly for livestock producers who rely on precipitation to grow forage. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers several programs to mitigate the economic costs of drought. One of these programs is the USDA, Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), which provides payments to livestock producers impacted by drought. Program evaluation results suggest that producers in drought affected counties that received LFP payments achieved similar herd retention and liquidation outcomes as producers in less drought impacted counties that were ineligible for LFP payments. Simulation modeling results in this report suggest that LFP poses a financial-climate risk to the Federal budget. Depending on the future increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, annual Federal Government expenditures on LFP are projected to increase above the current average expenditures by 45–135 percent (in 2022 dollars) by 2100

Transition Pathways to Sustainable Agricultural Water Management: A Review of Integrated Modeling Approaches

Agricultural water management (AWM) is an interdisciplinary concern, cutting across traditional domains such as agronomy, climatology, geology, economics, and sociology. Each of these disciplines has developed numerous process-based and empirical models for AWM. However, models that simulate all major hydrologic, water quality, and crop growth processes in agricultural systems are still lacking. As computers become more powerful, more researchers are choosing to integrate existing models to account for these major processes rather than building new cross-disciplinary models. Model integration carries the hope that, as in a real system, the sum of the model will be greater than the parts. However, models based upon simplified and unrealistic assumptions of physical or empirical processes can generate misleading results which are not useful for informing policy. In this article, we use literature and case studies from the High Plains Aquifer and Southeastern United States regions to elucidate the challenges and opportunities associated with integrated modeling for AWM and recommend conditions in which to use integrated models. Additionally, we examine the potential contributions of integrated modeling to AWM — the actual practice of conserving water while maximizing productivity