HR: 14:10h
AN: H53J-03 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Vegetated buffer management practice to improve surface water quality
AU: * Zhang, M
EM: mhzhang@ucdavis.edu
AF: University of California Davis, Hydrology Sciences One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, United States
AU: Zhang, X
EM: xuyzhang@ucdavis.edu
AF: University of California Davis, Hydrology Sciences One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, United States
AU: Liu, X
EM: xmliu@ucdavis.edu
AF: University of California Davis, Hydrology Sciences One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, United States
AB: Vegetated buffer best management practices (BMPs) installed in agricultural landscapes have been suggested as promising candidate tactics to reduce erosion and offsite transportation of agrochemicals. A wide range of vegetated buffer management practices have been installed in many areas to reduce agrochemical loss from applied fields, to filter sediments from tailwaters, and to deter their transportation to water bodies. This presentation will focus on reviewing vegetated buffers and their efficacies in reducing agrochemical offsite movements, with a discussion on the major factors influencing BMP efficacy. Percent removal by various BMPs ranged from 16.7 to 100% for sediments, 29 to 98% for nitrogen, 1 to 100% for phosphorus, and 27 to 100% for pesticides, depending on the setting. Preliminary meta-analyses on the data obtained from the literature review showed that vegetated buffers were mostly effective in removing sediment, followed by pesticides and nutrients. BMP efficacy is mainly influenced by buffer width, buffer slope, rainfall and vegetation. As for sediment reduction, the results based on the limited data showed that buffer width and buffer slope are two major factors influencing mitigation efficacy of vegetated buffers. The results also showed that a design with 10-m width and a 9% slope optimizes the sediment trapping capability of vegetated buffers. The meta-analysis results of this study could provide specific recommendations such as buffer width and slope for future vegetated buffer BMP construction to increase soil and water conservation.
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1813 Eco-hydrology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting