Advancing water resource management in agricultural, rural, and urbanizing watersheds: Why land-grant universities matter

Abstract

Federally funded university water programs have had limited success in halting the degradation of water resources in agricultural, rural, and urbanizing watersheds for the past five decades. USDA-funded university water programs have advanced our understanding of watershed processes and the development of best management practices (BMPs; e.g., conservation tillage, nutrient management, alternative and innovative septic systems, and riparian buffers) to mitigate environmental risks from anthropogenic activities, in particular from agriculture, to our water resources; yet water degradation persists and has worsened in many watersheds (Howarth et al. 2000;Mueller and Spahr 2006). The National Research Council (2012) stresses the need for sustainable agricultural practices to reduce changes in flow regimes and water quality.In this research editorial, we make four points relative to solving water resource issues: (1) they are complex problems and difficult to solve; (2) some progress has been made on solving these issues; (3) external nonstationary drivers such as land use changes, climate change and variability, and shifts in markets, policies, and regulations warrant constant vigilance to assure that presumed improvements are being attained; and (4) we are poised to make substantial progress on these challenges over the next 10 to 20 years if critical steps are taken. Our discussion is framed by identifying and describing four grand challenges that we face in agricultural, rural, and urbanizing watersheds: nutrient management, food safety, agricultural water use, and groundwater management. These four grand challenge areas were distilled from a listing of over 50 important issues related to agricultural water resource management identified at a workshop of university and government water scientists in November of 2011. Our over-

Assessment of USDA‐NRCS rangeland conservation programs: recommendation for an evidence‐based conservation platform

“…Science emphasizes precision and repeatability, but it often lacks sufficient context for successful conservation applications because these actions occur within complex adaptive systems characterized by economic, political, and cultural considerations, in addition to substantial environmental variability (Lawton 2007, Head 2015. Several federal funding agencies, including USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, have recognized and addressed the need for greater conservation-relevant science by requiring involvement of various stakeholder groups in some research projects from the outset (Gold et al 2013). Several federal funding agencies, including USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, have recognized and addressed the need for greater conservation-relevant science by requiring involvement of various stakeholder groups in some research projects from the outset (Gold et al 2013).…”

“…Consequently, scientists are often more adept at sharing explicit information to advance understanding, rather than in knowledge generation and sharing to promote problem-solving (Roux et al 2006). Several federal funding agencies, including USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, have recognized and addressed the need for greater conservation-relevant science by requiring involvement of various stakeholder groups in some research projects from the outset (Gold et al 2013).…”

Implementing land-based mitigation to achieve the Paris Agreement in Europe requires food system transformation

“…Nevertheless, a warming climate will likely affect water availability, especially in Southern Europe [77], requiring widespread application of irrigation water. This is likely to depend, however, on farmers knowledge and capacity to adapt [78,79].…”

California's agricultural regions gear up to actively manage groundwater use and protection

“…Agronomic and crop scientists have rarely taken into account losses of contaminants to groundwater when developing best management practices and farm recommendations. Existing recommendations for fertilizer applications, for example, are in urgent need of revision to account for potential unwanted losses of nutrients to groundwater (Gold et al 2013;Rosenstock et al 2014). Another challenge for scientists is the design of groundwater monitoring networks.…”