HR: 14:25h
AN: H53J-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Cost-Effective Allocation of Agricultural Best Management Practices
AU: * Arabi, M
EM: mazdak.arabi@colostate.edu
AF: Colorado State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1372 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523, United States
AU: Govindaraju, R S
EM: govind@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AU: Engel, B A
EM: engelb@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 225 S. University St, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AB: Implementation of conservation programs is perceived as being crucial for restoring and protecting waters and watersheds from nonpoint source pollution. Success of these programs depends to a great extent on planning tools that can assist the watershed management process. Herein, a novel optimization methodology is presented for deriving watershed-scale sediment and nutrient control plans that incorporate multiple, and often conflicting, objectives. The method combines the use of a watershed model (SWAT), representation of best management practices, an economic component, and a genetic algorithm-based spatial search procedure. For a small watershed in Indiana located in the Midwestern portion of the United States, selection and placement of best management practices by optimization was found to be nearly three times more cost-effective than targeting strategies for the same level of protection specified in terms of maximum monthly sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen loads. Conversely, for the same cost, the optimization plan reduced the maximum monthly loads by a factor of two when compared to the targeting plan. The optimization methodology developed in this paper can facilitate attaining water quality goals at significantly lower costs than commonly used cost-share and targeting strategies.
DE: 1834 Human impacts
DE: 1847 Modeling
DE: 1871 Surface water quality
DE: 4558 Sediment transport (1862)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting