Mission:
The Soil and Water Management Research Unit conducts research to: (1) increase crop water productivity and enhance the environment while preserving the regional soil and water resources in both irrigated and dryland cropping systems through the development of improved irrigation systems and management technologies; tillage/residue management practices; and information technologies using remote sensing, and (2) enhance rural economic sustainability through improved technologies to better utilize the available precipitation, enhance recharge, and reduce ground water depletion in the Ogallala Aquifer region and other semiarid environments. Mission goals are accomplished through a better understanding of soil-plant-water relations and the dynamics governing energy and water fluxes at the soil-plant-atmosphere interface, particularly in semi-arid environments; and improved application of remote sensing technologies to spatially capture the cropping patterns, tillage practices, regional hydrology, and energy balance and water use in dryland and irrigated cropping systems as well as on rangelands.