Simulate & quantify sediment-P reduction in BMPs

Title: Equipping conservation practitioners with quantitative estimations of sediment and P reduction from BMPs

Location: Walnut Creek

Time Period: 2023 - 2025

Research Team: Eduardo Luquin, Emily Zimmerman, Brian Gelder, Daryl Herzmann, Richard Cruse

Project Description: Water bodies worldwide are facing increasing pollution from sediment and phosphorus (P), threatening aquatic ecosystems and water quality. This environmental issue poses significant challenges to sustainable water resource management and necessitates effective solutions to mitigate its impacts. Various models and tools exist to predict P loss from agricultural areas and watersheds. Yet, their complexity and specialized requirements hinder practical implementation, especially for conservation planners aiming to prioritize best management practices (BMPs) for sediment and P control in agricultural landscapes.

Presently, the Daily Erosion Project (DEP) and the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) simplify input-output intricacies in soil erosion and conservation planning. Tailored for the Midwest US, DEP offers user-friendly daily soil erosion estimates. ACPF employs geospatial data and GIS to pinpoint critical source areas and viable BMP sites.

To merge the strengths of DEP's computational power and ACPF's accessibility into a unified tool, our project aims to create a user-friendly interface for conservation practitioners. Our primary objective is to utilize DEP's sediment and P loss outputs in ACPF to: (i) simulate and prioritize high erosion and P transport zones, (ii) outline optimal BMP deployment, and (iii) quantify potential sediment and phosphorus reduction and costs across scales.

The project approach includes:
- Evaluating Watershed Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) approaches for sediment and P transport simulation to incorporate into the tool.
- Developing an independent, scaled-down DEP model for accurate sediment and P loss predictions using detailed field data.
- Integrating the scaled-down DEP sediment and P model into ACPF's framework (ACPF FiNRT) for comprehensive sediment and P reduction and cost projections for BMP scenarios at field and small catchment levels.

Publications:

Funders: INRC

Disclaimer: This is an active research site, please contact Eduardo Luquin (eluquin@iastate.edu) prior to planning any site visits.