Assessing cultivated cropland inherent vulnerability to sediment and nutrient losses with the Soil Vulnerability Index

Baffaut, Claire; Thompson, Allen L.; Duriancik, Lisa F.; Ingram, Kevin A.; Norfleet, M. L.

doi:10.2489/jswc.75.1.20a

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Other caveats of SVI data are discussed in Thompson et al (2020). Importantly, because SVI is an index that uses relatively few inputs, it does not account for some parameters considered to be important in determining soil and leaching potential in certain geographic locations such as rainfall intensity and topsoil depth, and may be sensitive to slope, complexity of soil profiles, and the presence of artificial drainage (Baffaut et al 2020a(Baffaut et al , 2020bLohani et al 2020a;Thompson et al 2020). We did not use hydrological models or monitoring data to assess its accuracy as others have done with the SVI (Lee et al 2018;Yasarer et al 2020;Lohani et al 2020b), due to the extensive spatial coverage of our output.…”

Section: Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An alternative to these tools is the SVI, which can be applied with basic knowledge of ArcGIS and open source data, increasing its accessibility and utility in guiding conservation. Since its development, the SVI has been used to validate and compare other indices and water quality metrics (Chan et al 2017;Baffaut et al 2020a;Lohani et al 2020a;Lohani et al 2020b), and will be used to streamline the assessment of conservation needs and delivery services in the NRCS Conservation Assessment and Ranking Tool (CART) (Baffaut et al 2020b). Beyond published literature discussing the SVI's development, improvement, and validation, there have yet to be any studies that demonstrate and test its ability to target conservation.…”

Section: Journal Of Soil and Water Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Index across broad spatial extents to guide conservation efforts

Audia¹,

Schulte²,

James³

2021

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

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Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Index across broad spatial extents to guide conservation efforts THE NEED FOR TARGETED AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION The 2008 Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Action Plan was developed in response to national water quality impairments that were largely caused by agricultural land uses within and around the US Corn Belt (Alexander et al. 2008; Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force 2008). The plan prompted states to create nutrient reduction strategies to achieve a 45% reduction in total nitrogen (N) and total phosphorus (P) loads into the Mississippi River, and thereby alleviate the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico (Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force 2008). Similar to other state strategies, the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS) promotes the widespread and voluntary adoption of best management practices (BMPs) to achieve nutrient reduction goals. The INRS establishes goals of 41% and 29% reductions in total N and total P, respectively, from nonpoint sources from a 1980 to 1996 baseline (Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship et al. 2017). These goals are largely dependent on regional conservation funding and infrastructure to inform and incentivize BMP adoption at individual farm scales (Zimmerman et al. 2019a). Although billions of dollars have been spent to promote conservation, Iowa continues to be a primary contributor to Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, and there is little evidence of progress toward meeting environmental quality goals (Schilling et al. 2020; Jones et al. 2018; Robertson et al. 2014; Alexander et al. 2008; Tomer and Locke 2011; Osmond et al. 2012). Lack of success at broad-scale conservation efforts can be blamed on a complex mix of social, economic, and ecological barriers (Atwell et al. 2009; Osmond et al. 2012; Mattia et al. 2018; Zimmerman et al. 2019a); however, the historical lack of spatial precision and consideration of hydrologic processes in BMP application is likely a significant factor (Osmond et al. 2012; Tomer and Locke

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Section: Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Journal Of Soil and Water Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Index across broad spatial extents to guide conservation efforts

Audia¹,

Schulte²,

James³

2021

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

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“…As Sposito [1] indicated, soil is a natural resource that cannot be taken for granted. Several recent studies warn about the risks of erosion for global soil resources, but also water resources and ecosystems [2][3][4][5]. To tackle on and off-site damage due to erosion, adequate land and watershed management is necessary [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and Land Use Change Effects on Sediment Production in a Dry Tropical Forest Catchment

Montoya

Giráldez

Vanwalleghem

2021

Water

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Understanding the natural and anthropogenic drivers that influence erosion and sediment transport is a key prerequisite for adequate management of river basins, where, especially in tropical catchments, there are few direct measurements or modeling studies. Therefore, this study analyzed the effect of human-induced land-use changes and natural ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) related changes in rainfall patterns on soil erosion and catchment-scale sediment dynamics with the SEDD (Sediment Delivery Distributed) model. In the 393 km2 Tonusco river basin, representative of tropical, mountainous conditions, daily rainfall data were used to quantify changes in rainfall erosivity and satellite images for the evaluation of cover factor changes between 1977 and 2015. The final model combined soil loss, calculated by RUSLE, with a sediment routing-based delivery ratio, that was calibrated and validated with data from the sediment load recorded at the basin outlet. The results detected a great reduction of the vegetation cover in the catchment during the last decade of from 79.5 to 29.5%, and the influence of important runoff and erosion events linked to La Niña episodes. Soil erosion rates were locally very high, of over 120 Mg ha−1yr−1, and sediment yields were estimated at the range of 6.17–8.23 Mg ha−1yr−1.

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“…To identify if previous BMPs have been placed in hotspots, or locations with soils of high vulnerability to nutrient and sediment movement, the soil vulnerability index (SVI) was used. The USDA NRCS developed the SVI after evaluating data from the Conservation Effects Assessment Program (CEAP; Baffaut et al 2020). The purpose of the SVI is to identify which soils are vulnerable to nutrient loss, primarily based on hydrologic soil group, slope, and soil erodibility (Thompson et al 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We quantified the percentage of land identified as "moderately high" or "high" to surface (soil runoff) and subsurface (soil leaching) loss under current or recommended practices, as well as the contributing area, or the land that drains to the area covered by each practice. The subsurface SVI values vary based on whether the agricultural field is artificially drained (Baffaut et al 2020). We used the "Tile Drainage Classification" tool in ACPF to estimate whether each field was artificially drained based on slope and soil factors ) and augmented our understanding of drainage opoprtunities based on expert opinion and ancillary data from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying environmental, economic, and equity opportunities through a spatial lens

Summers

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Agriculture in the U.S. Corn Belt has become highly specialized, efficiently growing two crops, corn and soybeans, and concentrated livestock production. However, this specialization -and the management system it encourages -has caused negative environmental externalities. For example, beneficial insects and wildlife, their habitat, and water quality have all declined as agricultural production has simplified and expanded on the landscape. Solutions exist to address those negative externalities by incorporating conservation and native perennial cover into the landscape. Nonetheless, these solutions often contradict the traditional productivist norms of agriculture and have other tangible barriers (e.g., cost or alignment with the production system). This dissertation used spatial analysis methods to identify opportunities for environmental, economic, and equitable improvement across the landscape. It included three studies evaluating biophysical, economic, and social factors for conservation practice implementation. In an effort to expand the breadth of analysis, the final chapter focused on social equity at a national extent for environmental resource provisioning.To identify where win-win scenarios for ecosystem services (i.e., nitrate reduction for enhanced water quality) and economic benefits to a landowner exist, three case study watersheds were analyzed to determine whether and how often conservation practices to address nitrate reduction and water quality overlapped with unprofitable subfield areas. The Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) and Iowa State Ag Decision Maker financial data were used to identify overlaps between water quality-focused conservation practice placement and unprofitable subfield areas. Approximately 30% of the study area had co-occurring economic and environmental benefits that resulted in a win-win scenario. In the remaining 70% of the study area, trade-offs existed between increasing whole-field profitability and improvements to water quality. While conservation in unprofitable areas tended to be more cost-effective, it did not always differ significantly from implementing conservation practices in profitable areas.

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Assessing cultivated cropland inherent vulnerability to sediment and nutrient losses with the Soil Vulnerability Index

Cited by 8 publications

References 7 publications

Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Index across broad spatial extents to guide conservation efforts

Mapping the Soil Vulnerability Index across broad spatial extents to guide conservation efforts

Climate and Land Use Change Effects on Sediment Production in a Dry Tropical Forest Catchment

Identifying environmental, economic, and equity opportunities through a spatial lens

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