An integrated social and ecological modeling framework-impacts of agricultural conservation practices on water quality
Authored by Rick L Riolo, Joan Iverson Nassauer, Irem Daloglu, Donald Scavia
Date Published: 2014
DOI: 10.5751/es-06597-190312
Sponsors:
Oceans and Human Health Initiative (NOAA)
United States National Science Foundation (NSF)
Platforms:
Repast
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Flow charts
Model Code URLs:
https://www.comses.net/codebases/3987/releases/1.0.0/
Abstract
We present a modeling framework that synthesizes social, economic, and ecological aspects of landscape change to evaluate how different agricultural policy and land tenure scenarios and land management preferences affect landscape pattern and downstream water quality. We linked a stylized agent-based model (ABM) of farmers' conservation practice adoption decisions with a water quality model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), to simulate the water quality effects of changing land tenure dynamics and different policies for crop revenue insurance in lieu of commodity payments over 41 years (1970-2010) for a predominantly agricultural watershed of Lake Erie. Results show that non-operator owner involvement in land management decisions yields the highest reduction in sediment and nutrient loads, and crop revenue insurance leads to more homogeneous farmer decisions and a slight increase in sediment and nutrient loads unless cross compliance with expanded conservation requirements is implemented.
Tags
Agriculture
ABM
Water Quality
Integrated modeling
Agricultural policy
SWAT
conservation practice