Water quality assessment with agro-environmental indexing of non-point sources, Trinity River Basin

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dc.acquisition-srcDownloaded from-Web of Scienceen_US
dc.call-noen_US
dc.contract-noen_US
dc.contributor.authorChen Xen_US
dc.contributor.authorHarman WLen_US
dc.contributor.authorMagre Men_US
dc.contributor.authorWang Een_US
dc.contributor.authorSrinivasan Ren_US
dc.contributor.authorWilliams JRen_US
dc.contributor.otherApplied Engineering in Agricultureen_US
dc.date.accessioned2010-02-15T17:18:06Z
dc.date.available2010-02-15T17:18:06Z
dc.date.issued2000 Julen_US
dc.degreeen_US
dc.description405-417en_US
dc.description-otheren_US
dc.description.abstractA comprehensive water quality assessment was conducted to determine the potential impacts of agriculture on surface and groundwater quality. The EPIC (Environmental Policy Integrated Climate) model was used to simulate cropping systems in the Trinity River Basin in Texas for 12 eight-digit hydrologic unit areas (HUA) using combinations of 29 soil series, 9 crops, and 3 tillage technologies. The study utilizes an indexing method to facilitate communicating the relative impacts of soils, crops, tillage, and management practices on the following agro-environmental indicators of water quality: (1) surface water runoff, (2) soil erosion, (3) nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) loss in runoff, (4) phosphorous (P) loss in runoff, (5) NO3-N loss in sediment, (6) P loss in sediment, and (7) NO3-N leaching loss. A frequency analysis was also conducted to provide an overview of the impacts; indicated by averaging broad groupings of precipitation, soil types by percent clay, percent slope, tillage practices, and crop rotations produced. When grouped by soil type, high clay content soils on average minimized NO3-N leaching of all soil types. In contrast, clay and loam soils increased runoff over sandy soils. Additionally, clay and loam soils lost more NO3-N and P in runoff as well as in sediment than sandy soils. With respect to tillage practice, no-till and reduced using no-till and reduced erosion compared with conventional tillage practices. NO3-N and P losses in sediment were reduced using no-till and reduced tillage, but the NO3-N and P losses in runoff were not particularly affected, on average, by tillage practice. With regard to crop selection and rotation, the degree of agro-environmental impact from nutrient losses was largely correlated with the applications of N and P. Though the simulation results largely agreed with previous experiences of agricultural researchers, the ultimate implication of this study is that creating indices for a multitude of comparisons of simulated water quality or other environmental impacts in complex agricultural systems can be communicated and summarized with a high degree of specificity. However, indexing simulation results for comparitive analyses was less than satisfactory, on occasion, when an index value was very large usually caused by a small value for the baseline crop. In many cases, the impact of the alternative would not be considered as extreme, though the large index value might imply the agro-environmental impact to be severe. The major advantage of indexing is the case of communicating diverse results in an uncomplicated manner. Thus, indexing provides a means of communicating water quality impacts of complex production elements in agriculture to citizens policy makers, and other decision-makers not familiar with themen_US
dc.description.urihttp://gbic.tamug.edu/request.htmen_US
dc.historyen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1969.3/23584
dc.latitudeen_US
dc.locationen_US
dc.longitudeen_US
dc.notesTimes Cited: 1ArticleEnglishChen, XTexas A&M Univ Syst, Blackland Res Ctr, 720 E Blackland Rd, Temple, TX 76502 USACited References Count: 16344FX2950 NILES RD, ST JOSEPH, MI 49085-9659 USAST JOSEPHen_US
dc.placeen_US
dc.publisheren_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries51239.00en_US
dc.relation.urien_US
dc.scaleen_US
dc.seriesen_US
dc.subjectagricultureen_US
dc.subjectAREASen_US
dc.subjectclimateen_US
dc.subjectELEMENTSen_US
dc.subjectENVIRONMENTen_US
dc.subjectEPIC modelen_US
dc.subjectEROSIONen_US
dc.subjectFERTILIZERen_US
dc.subjectFREQUENCIESen_US
dc.subjectIMPACTen_US
dc.subjectindexingen_US
dc.subjectINDICATORen_US
dc.subjectINFILTRATIONen_US
dc.subjectLOSSESen_US
dc.subjectMANAGEMENTen_US
dc.subjectNITROGENen_US
dc.subjectnon-point sourceen_US
dc.subjectnutrienten_US
dc.subjectRAINFALLen_US
dc.subjectRESIDUEen_US
dc.subjectRUNOFFen_US
dc.subjectSELECTIONen_US
dc.subjectSIMULATIONen_US
dc.subjectSOILen_US
dc.subjectSURFACEen_US
dc.subjectSYSTEMSen_US
dc.subjectTEXASen_US
dc.subjectTILLAGEen_US
dc.subjectTrinity Riveren_US
dc.subjectTXen_US
dc.subjectUSAen_US
dc.subjectWATERen_US
dc.subjectwater qualityen_US
dc.titleWater quality assessment with agro-environmental indexing of non-point sources, Trinity River Basinen_US
dc.typeJournalen_US
dc.universityen_US
dc.vol-issue16(4)en_US

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