Location: Sustainable Water Management Research
Project Number: 6066-13000-006-008-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2019
End Date: Jul 30, 2024
Objective:
This cooperative research will assess the integration of surface water management and subsurface aquifer technologies to protect and enhance soil and water resources while addressing critical water needs of crop production under variable and adverse climate conditions and declining Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer levels.
Approach:
Research studies have been established at or near the MSU Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, Mississippi, or on privately owned farms throughout the Mississippi Delta (MD) region to quantify the contribution of various water management strategies to conserve water, protect and enhance water quality, improve soil health, and improve profitability. Management practices utilized potentially include irrigation technologies, conservation tillage, and cover crops. Research will be performed by combining field reconnaissance, detailed data collection, and computational modeling techniques to link utilization of surface and groundwater sources. Irrigation well utilization records will be assessed for water demand in the MD Region as collected by the Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District (YMD). The contribution of land preparation methods and irrigation water management strategies on productivity, profitability, and water use efficiency will be assessed. Irrigation water management tools and models (i.e. AnnAGNPS, MODFLOW) will be adapted or enhanced to represent management and conservation practices (i.e. irrigation scheduling, aquifer withdrawals and recharge, tailwater recovery systems) and compared against existing monitored water data from different scenarios.
