Location: Water Management and Systems Research
Project Number: 3012-13660-010-017-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 30, 2023
End Date: Jul 30, 2028
Objective:
ARS and Colorado State University (CSU) Agricultural Water Quality Program will partner to establish the South Platte River Basin (SPRB) CEAP site, with a priority on comprehensive assessment of BMP outcomes from source water, to water delivery, to farm and ranch use, to watershed discharge. The focus will be (1) managing source waters for resilience to fires on private lands, (2) optimizing distribution of water resources between agriculture and other land uses, (3) improving edge-of-field and watershed outcomes from tillage, nutrient, structural and irrigation BMPs.
Approach:
Project funds will support implementation of water quality monitoring and AgES modeling. Watershed monitoring stations will be established at targeted sites across the SPRB. Sites will provide data to assess BMP effectiveness at the appropriate scale, from edge-of-field to small watershed. The network may also include monitoring of groundwater monitoring stations connected with SPRB surface waters. The water quality monitoring network Foundational modeling will be carried out in headwater and agricultural watersheds to enable comparison of management strategy outcomes.
