A Process For Engaging Farmers In Watershed Management

Author : Honghai Qi
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (468 download)

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Download or read book Integrated Watershed Management and Agricultural Land-use Optimization Under Uncertainty written by Honghai Qi and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: A principal contributor to soil erosion and non-point source pollution, agricultural activities have a major influence on the environmental quality of a watershed. Impact of agricultural activities on the quality of water resources can be minimized by implementing suitable land use plans with Best Management Practices (BMPs). Currently, agricultural land use plans with BMPs are designed (location, type, and operational schedule) based on field study results, and do not involve a science-based approach to ensure their efficiency under particular regional, climatic, geological and economical conditions. At the present, there is a real need for new methodologies that can optimize the selection, design and operation of BMPs at the watershed scale by taking into account environmental, technical and economical considerations, based on realistic simulations of watershed response. In this respect, the present study proposes a new approach which integrates computational modeling of watershed processes, fluvial processes in the drainage network and modern heuristic optimization techniques to design cost effective land use plans with BMPs. The watershed model AnnAGNPS and the channel network model CCHE1D are linked together to simulate the sediment and pollutant transport processes. Based on the computational results, a multi-objective function is set up to minimize soil losses, nutrient concentrations, and total associated costs, while the production profits from agriculture are maximized. The selected iterative optimization algorithm uses adaptive Tabu search heuristic to flip (switching from one alternative to another) land-change variables. Both single-flip and multi-flip Tabu Search algorithms are developed depending on number of fields involved for change. The simulations of the watershed response and the drainage network are carried out using numerical models involving a large number of parameters, and the results are subject to uncertainties, which may be both epistemological and due to natural variability. Although various methods, such as Monte Carlo analysis, are available to quantify uncertainties, these cannot be used within a MODM framework due to the prohibitive computational times they would require. A review of various methods to evaluate uncertainties and assess risks involved rapidly showed that a simplified approach was necessary. Based on this review, a Fuzzy Logic System (FLS) was proposed for uncertainty analysis, which allows for quantitative representation of parameter uncertainties through a fuzzifier-inference-defuzzifier process. USDA's Goodwin Creek experimental watershed, located in Northern Mississippi, is used to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach. The results of four test case studies involving agricultural land use planning with BMPs show that the optimized land use design with BMPs using an integrated approach at the watershed level can provide efficient and cost-effective conservation of the environmental quality by taking into account also productivity and profitability. The proposed FLS incorporated into the MODM framework has also been evaluated for land use planning of long-term sustainability Goodwin Creek watershed. The results shows this methodology could provide important supplementary information of uncertainty for stakeholders in the decision making process. A GIS-based Decision Support System (DSS) has also been developed for allowing a broad audience, from sophisticated research scientists, watershed planners, to farm stakeholders, to discover the data that are available for a specific place, and to assemble these data for study of integrated land use planning. Keywords: Land Use Planning, BMP, Watershed Management, Simulation, Optimization, AnnAGNPS, Tabu Search, Nonpoint Source Pollution, Goodwin Creek Watershed, Mississippi.