Act 4 Water Crisis. My water visionary

• Our scientific research solves
  problems that affect Americans daily.
  
• We perform the research at about 100 locations.
  
• We often form science partnerships with
  others.
  
• Every research project is coordinated through our National
  Research Programs.
  

Water Availability and Watershed Management

This program develops practices and technologies to manage the Nation's agricultural water
resources. Research focus areas include developing methods to reuse
degraded water, increase water use efficiency and water availability to
mitigate impacts of drought. Develop practices and tools to quantify and
predict the impact of conservation practices and their net c**ulative
benefits within watersheds. Develop technology and strategies to restore
stream corridors and reduce soil erosion and sedimentation. Develop
technology and strategies to reduce the transport of nutrients,
pathogens, and pharmaceutically active compounds to enhance water
quality. Results will provide the technologies to manage and deliver
safe and reliable fresh water supplies to the agricultural, urban, and
industrial sectors of society while enhancing the aquatic natural
resources of the Nation.

They want this program to help people better understand " the role agricultural conservation practices and programs play in achieving the nation's environmental objectives - clean air and water,
healthy soils, and functioning habitat for wildlife. Improved
understanding of conservation performance is also needed to improve
future conservation programs and practices."

The ARS Conservation Effects A****sment Project (CEAP) goals are

• Develop and implement a web-based data system to organize, doc**ent, manipulate, and compile climate, water, soil, land-management, and
  socioeconomic data from ARS research watersheds for a****sment of
  conservation practices and other hydrologic analyses.
  
• Measure and quantify water quality, water quantity, soil quality, and ecosystem effects of conservation practices at the
  watershed scale in a variety of hydrologic and agronomic settings.
  
• Validate models and quantify uncertainties of model predictions at multiple scales by comparing predictions of water quality to
  measured water, soil and land management effects of conservation
  practices.
  
• Develop and apply policy-planning tools to aid selection and placement of conservation practices to optimize profits, environmental
  quality, and conservation practice efficiency.
  
• Develop and verify regional watershed models that quantify environmental outcomes of conservation practices in major agricultural
  regions.

Team 1: Database Development. The database, named STEWARDS (Sustaining The Earth’s Watersheds –
Agricultural Research Database System), will store hydrologic, economic,
management, and other data from the watersheds for later analysis and
model runs. This team is led by Jean Steiner (El Reno OK) and Jerry
Hatfield (Ames IA).

Team 2: Watershed Designand empirical measurements of conservation effects. This objective is the core of the
science basis for CEAP. The team is led by Martin Locke (Oxford MS) and
Mark Tomer (Ames IA).

Team 3: Modeling of Watersheds. Data from the above objectives supports modeling using the Soil Water
A****sment Tool ( SWAT) and Annualized Agricultural Non-point
Source ( AnnAGNPS) models, which will extend the
empirical data to unmonitored watersheds. This team is led by Jeff
Arnold (Temple TX), Ron Bingner (Oxford MS), and Tim Strickland (Tifton
GA).

Team 4: Economic A****sment. Data from the watersheds, plus the modeling procedures, are integrated into economic
analyses for decision support to the conservation policy effort. This
team is led by Jerry Whitaker (Corvallis OR) and Chi-Hua Huang (West
Lafayette IN).

Team 5: Regionalization of Models. This objective seeks to capture legacy computer models into modular packages
using collaborative Object-oriented Modeling System ( OMS and
CoLab)
methods to facilitate development of models applicable in specific
regions of the USA. This team is led by Laj Ahuja (Ft. Collins CO) and
Matt Romkens (Oxford MS).

Team 6: Quality Assurance. This team supports the standardization of methods and procedures across the
CEAP-WAS project. It is led by Ray Bryant (University Park PA) and Norm
Fausey (Columbus OH).

I have written emails to Dr. John Sadler and Mark R. Walbridge who are the heads of the program and will follow up with postings.

John.Sadler@ARS.USDA.GOV
Mark.Walbridge@ARS.USDA.GOV


PS. forgot to add the website!