Monitoring the Effectiveness and Prioritization of Conservation Practices
Start Date
26-10-2018 8:00 PM
End Date
26-10-2018 10:00 PM
Description
The loss of soil and nutrients from agricultural land can have adverse effects on the soil productivity of arable fields. The sediment and nutrients that are lost from fields can also contribute to impairments to downstream waterbodies. Limited program resources and deadlines are requiring resource managers to better identify where and what to focus conservation efforts on and track the effectiveness of BMPs to meet water quality standards and TMDLs. A variety of new and innovative tools and techniques will be presented through an overview of USGS studies that have helped to aid resource managers in monitoring the effectiveness and prioritization of conservation practices. Topics will include 1.) tracking temporal trends through direct observations or surrogate models using continuous monitoring of flow, water quality (i.e. nitrate sensor) and sampling, 2) developing spatial frameworks such as watershed-scale synoptic sampling for nutrients or estimating soil erosion rates from landuse, 3.) identifying sediment and nutrient sources through techniques such as fingerprinting and isotopic composition, 4.) field scale studies that better understand processes and evaluate restoration and BMPs (i.e. irrigation nutrient uptake) through groundwater flowpath studies and 5.) advances in data visualization and modeling to provide resource managers planning methods that access big data to drill down to solutions. Incorporating these new and innovative tools will help resource managers to prioritize conservation practices and adaptively manage and balance agricultural production and water-quality protection. Examples of each topic will be provided from cooperative USGS studies.
Keywords
conservation, water quality, BMP, monitoring
Type
Poster
Session
Poster session
Language
eng
Monitoring the Effectiveness and Prioritization of Conservation Practices
Elaine Langone Center, Terrace Room
The loss of soil and nutrients from agricultural land can have adverse effects on the soil productivity of arable fields. The sediment and nutrients that are lost from fields can also contribute to impairments to downstream waterbodies. Limited program resources and deadlines are requiring resource managers to better identify where and what to focus conservation efforts on and track the effectiveness of BMPs to meet water quality standards and TMDLs. A variety of new and innovative tools and techniques will be presented through an overview of USGS studies that have helped to aid resource managers in monitoring the effectiveness and prioritization of conservation practices. Topics will include 1.) tracking temporal trends through direct observations or surrogate models using continuous monitoring of flow, water quality (i.e. nitrate sensor) and sampling, 2) developing spatial frameworks such as watershed-scale synoptic sampling for nutrients or estimating soil erosion rates from landuse, 3.) identifying sediment and nutrient sources through techniques such as fingerprinting and isotopic composition, 4.) field scale studies that better understand processes and evaluate restoration and BMPs (i.e. irrigation nutrient uptake) through groundwater flowpath studies and 5.) advances in data visualization and modeling to provide resource managers planning methods that access big data to drill down to solutions. Incorporating these new and innovative tools will help resource managers to prioritize conservation practices and adaptively manage and balance agricultural production and water-quality protection. Examples of each topic will be provided from cooperative USGS studies.