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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #309457
Title: LUMINATE: Linking agricultural land use, local water quality and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia

Author
item KLING, CATHERINE - Iowa State University
item PANAGOPOULOS, YIANNIS - Iowa State University
item RABOTYAGOV, SERGEY - University Of Washington
item VALCU, ADRIANA - Iowa State University
item GASSMAN, PHILIP - Iowa State University
item CAMPBELL, TODD - Iowa State University
item White, Michael
item Arnold, Jeffrey
item SRINIVASAN, RAGHAVAN - Texas A&M University
item JHA, MANOJ - North Carolina Agricultural And Technical State University
item RICHARDSON, JEFFREY - University Of Washington
item MOSKAL, L - University Of Washington
item TURNER, R - Louisiana State University
item RABALAIS, NANCY - Louisiana State University

Submitted to: European Review of Agricultural Economics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/2/2014
Publication Date: 6/10/2014
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/60443
Citation: Kling, C.L., Panagopoulos, Y., Rabotyagov, S.S., Valcu, A.M., Gassman, P.W., Campbell, T., White, M.J., Arnold, J.G., Srinivasan, R., Jha, M.K., Richardson, J.J., Moskal, L.M., Turner, R.E., Rabalais, N.N. 2014. LUMINATE: Linking agricultural land use, local water quality and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia. European Review of Agricultural Economics. 41(3):431-459.

Interpretive Summary: This paper describes the development of tools to address water quality problems associated with agricultural pollution. We describe a new modelling system, LUMINATE, which links on-farm decisions in the Upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers to downstream water quality and the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. This system can analyze policy scenarios and predict cost both in dollars and benefits to water quality. We demonstrate the system’s capabilities by predicting the water quality effects of paying farmers to use cover crops over a large expanse of the watershed.

Technical Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the importance of developing integrated assessment models to support the design and implementation of policies to address water quality problems associated with agricultural pollution. We describe a new modelling system, LUMINATE, which links land use decisions made at the field scale in the Upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Basins through both environmental and hydrological components to downstream water quality effects and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. This modelling system can be used to analyze detailed policy scenarios identifying the costs of the policies and their resulting benefits for improved local and regional water quality. We demonstrate the model's capabilities with a simple scenario where cover crops are incentivized with green payments over a large expanse of the watershed.