Advances in Precision Conservation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2113(08)00201-0Get rights and content

Population growth is expected to increase, and the world population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, which decreases the per capita arable land. More intensive agricultural production will have to meet the increasing food demands for this increasing population, especially because of an increasing demand for land area to be used for biofuels. These increases in intensive production agriculture will have to be accomplished amid the expected environmental changes attributed to Global Warming. During the next four decades, soil and water conservation scientists will encounter some of their greatest challenges to maintain sustainability of agricultural systems stressed by increasing food and biofuels demands and Global Warming. We propose that Precision Conservation will be needed to support parallel increases in soil and water conservation practices that will contribute to sustainability of these very intensively-managed systems while contributing to a parallel increase in conservation of natural areas. The original definition of Precision Conservation is technologically based, requiring the integration of a set of spatial technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing (RS), and geographic information systems (GIS) and the ability to analyze spatial relationships within and among mapped data according to three broad categories: surface modeling, spatial data mining, and map analysis. In this paper, we are refining the definition as follows: Precision Conservation is technologically based, requiring the integration of one or more spatial technologies such as GPS, RS, and GIS and the ability to analyze spatial relationships within and among mapped data according to three broad categories: surface modeling, spatial data mining, and map analysis. We propose that Precision Conservation will be a key science that will contribute to the sustainability of intensive agricultural systems by helping us to analyze spatial and temporal relationships for a better understanding of agricultural and natural systems. These technologies will help us to connect the flows across the landscape, better enabling us to evaluate how we can implement the best viable management and conservation practices across intensive agricultural systems and natural areas to improve soil and water conservation.

Introduction

Population growth is expected to increase, and the world population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, which will decrease the per capita arable land from 0.23 ha in 1995 to 0.14 ha by 2050 (Lal, 1995). More intensive agricultural production will have to meet the increasing food demands for this increasing population, especially because of an increasing demand for land area to be used for biofuels. These increases in intensive production agriculture will have to be accomplished amid the expected environmental changes attributed to Global Warming. Scientists are projecting future changes of weather patterns that include regions with higher evapotranspiration rates, lower precipitation in some areas, and higher precipitation in other areas, which may contribute to higher erosion rates (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004, Lal, 1995, Lal, 2000, Nearing et al., 2004, Pimentel et al., 1995). During the next four decades, soil and water conservation scientists will encounter some of their greatest challenges to maintain sustainability of agricultural systems stressed by increasing food and biofuel demands.

Several scientists have reported on the potential impacts of global population increase, increase in greenhouse gases, and potential effects of climate change on soil and water quality and on soil erosion (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004, Lal, 1995, Lal, 2000, Nearing et al., 2004, Pimentel et al., 1995). There is a concern that if precipitation patterns continue to change, certain future scenarios may cause conservation practices such as crop residue, no-till, and incorporation of manure to lose effectiveness very rapidly, resulting in dramatic increases in runoff, and higher impacts to soil and water quality (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004). It is also estimated that for every 25.4 mm increase in precipitation rate, erosibility increases by 1.7% (Nearing et al., 2004).

Nearing et al. (2004) reported that the relationship between increases in rain, biomass production, and erosion is more complex. Although an increase in rain could increase biomass production, a decrease in biomass may also increase erosion rates. The more difficult area to evaluate was effects of climate change on land use and erosion rates, yet they concluded from their analysis that the average increase in erosibility will be 1.7% per 25.4 mm increase in precipitation. It is important to note that Meisinger and Delgado (2002) reported an average 10–30% of total N inputs in cropping systems are lost due to nitrate leaching. Thus, increases in precipitation and/or more intensive storms could potentially contribute to higher nitrate leaching rates as well. These assessments from Nearing et al., 2004, Hatfield and Prueger, 2004 clearly show the continuing need for soil and water conservation scientists and practitioners to continue looking for alternatives for managing future impacts to soil and water quality.

Scientists and conservation practitioners will have to work together with farmers across all types of soils and weather to increase and sustain higher production to meet the demands of the increasing population, while managing for potential changes in weather patterns. This cooperation will also be necessary to develop cropping systems that produce enough to meet the increasing food and biofuel demands while maximizing soil and water conservation. The implementation of soil and water conservation will be necessary for the sustainability of these intensive efforts to maximize agricultural production. New technologies will help us to increase yields per hectare and these technologies will also be applied to understand and manage agricultural systems and to connect the flows from agricultural systems to natural areas in an effort to manage these regions for maximum yield and agroenvironmental sustainability.

Precision Conservation was originally defined as a set of spatial technologies and procedures linked to mapped variables, which is used to implement conservation management practices that take into account spatial and temporal variability across natural and agricultural systems (Berry et al., 2003). Contrary to Precision Farming that was oriented to maximize yields in agricultural fields, Precision Conservation connects farm fields, grasslands, and range areas with the natural surrounding areas such as buffers, riparian zones, forest, and water bodies (Fig. 1). The goal of Precision Conservation is to use information about surface and underground flows to analyze the systems in order to make the best viable decisions for application of management practices that contribute to conservation of agricultural, rangeland, and natural areas.

Berry et al. (2003) acknowledged that there could be different degrees of Precision Conservation such as the use of nondigital, non-GIS maps and the use of survey methods that can help in the application of spatial conservation practices. However, the original definition of Precision Conservation is technologically based, requiring the integration of spatial technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing (RS), and geographic information systems (GIS) and the ability to analyze spatial relationships within and among mapped data according to three broad map analysis categories: spatial analysis, surface modeling, and spatial data mining (Fig. 2). Since Berry et al. (2003), several other papers related to the topic of Precision Conservation have been published describing how these new technologies can be applied for maximizing Precision Conservation.

Section snippets

Geospatial Technologies

New GIS, GPS, RS, modeling, and computer program technologies are rapidly increasing our capacity to analyze large sets of information in space and time. Traditional statistics used for soil and water conservation studies and assessment of best management practices were initially nonspatial and analyzed a data set by fitting a numerical distribution (e.g., standard normal curve) to generalize the central tendency of the data. The values used for soil and water conservation have traditionally

Identifying Spatial Patterns and Relationships

For more than 8000 years, we have been using maps with features that identify special locations in the landscape to help us navigate. Precision Conservation is a new way to use advanced technologies to integrate thousands of data points and multiple layers of information contained in maps for management and conservation of the agricultural and natural areas. Specifically, Precision Conservation allows us to identify those management landscape combinations that produce or receive significant

Variable erosion and transport (flows of gases, nutrients, and water)

Quine and Zhang (2002) reported that eroded areas of the field with depleted nutrients had lower yields. This spatial relationship between erosion and crop yield is complex since other areas with high soil aggregation were also found to show lower yields (Quine and Zhang, 2002). Evaluation of variable erosion on yield production was more clear when long-term simulations of the field were conducted. Quine and Zhang (2002) conducted a long-term evaluation of 40 years that clearly showed the

Variable flows from field to nonfarm areas

The connection between field and off-site transport was assessed by Feng and Sharratt (2007) using the wind erosion prediction system and GIS. They used this approach to scale the flows from field to region. They reported that, across the entire region in Washington State, wind erosion was higher in the areas with summer fallow rotations. These unprotected areas were more susceptible to wind erosion losses. The amount of wind erosion from the region was attributed to management, not to the crop

Variable hydrology

Qiu et al. (2007) reported that surface runoff is a major contaminant threat to water quality in the USA and proposed that, by incorporating the variable surface area (VSA) hydrology into watershed management practices, we can concentrate our efforts in key areas of the watershed that are the most sensitive. They reported that Hewlett and Hibbert (1967) are credited with the concept of VSAs. Qiu et al. (2007) suggested the need to more closely assess the key management alternatives that will

Current Applications and Trends

The Berry et al. (2003) publication about Precision Conservation generated enough interest that the Soil Science Society of America, Canadian Soil Science Society, Mexican Soil Science Society, and the Division of Soil Water and Management and Conservation celebrated a joint symposium entitled: “Precision Conservation in North America” at the November 1–4, 2004 annual meeting in Seattle, Washington. A special issue of selected papers was published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

Summary and Conclusions

There are multiple examples of advances in Precision Conservation published during the last 4 years showing how new spatial technologies and the integration of GPS, GIS, RS, and models can be applied to improve management decisions that contribute to Precision Conservation of soil and water. Precision Conservation can more precisely identify where to locate riparian buffers, sediment ponds, nutrient management farms, and other ecological engineering practices to most effectively reduce

References (89)

  • J.K. Berry

    GIS technology in environmental management: A brief history, trends and probable future

  • J.K. Berry
  • J.K. Berry

    Map Analysis: Procedures and Applications in GIS Modeling

    (2003)
  • J.K. Berry

    Analyzing spatial content

  • J.K. Berry

    GIS innovation drives its evolution

    GeoWorld

    (2007)
  • J.K. Berry

    Geo-referencing is the cornerstone of GIS

    GeoWorld

    (2007)
  • J.K. Berry et al.

    Precision conservation for environmental sustainability

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2003)
  • J.K. Berry et al.

    Applying spatial analysis for precision conservation across the landscape

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2005)
  • S.J. Bhuyan et al.

    Assessment of runoff and sediment yield using remote sensing, GIS, and AGNPS

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2003)
  • C.A. Bonilla et al.

    Water erosion estimation in topographically complex landscapes: Model description and first verifications

    Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

    (2007)
  • P.E. Cabot et al.

    Monitoring and predicting manure application rates using precision conservation technology

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2006)
  • D.L. Corwin et al.

    GIS-based modeling of non-point source pollutants in the vadose zone

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (1998)
  • J.A. Delgado

    Sequential NLEAP simulations to examine effect of early and late planted winter cover crops on nitrogen dynamics

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (1998)
  • J.A. Delgado

    Use of simulations for evaluation of best management practices on irrigated cropping systems

  • J.A. Delgado et al.

    Potential use of precision conservation techniques to reduce nitrate leaching in irrigated crops

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2005)
  • J.A. Delgado et al.

    Mitigation alternatives to decrease nitrous oxides emissions and urea-nitrogen loss and their effect on methane flux

    J. Environ. Qual.

    (1996)
  • J.A. Delgado et al.

    Use of innovative tools to increase nitrogen use efficiency and protect environmental quality in crop rotations

    Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal.

    (2001)
  • J.A. Delgado et al.

    Nitrogen fertilizer management based on site-specific management zones reduce potential for NO3-N leaching

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2005)
  • J.A. Delgado et al.

    Assessment of nitrogen losses to the environment with a Nitrogen Trading Tool (NTT)

    Comput. Electron. Agric.

    (2008)
  • P.J.J. Desmet et al.

    A GIS procedure for automatically calculating the USLE LS factor on topographic complex landscape units

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (1996)
  • M.G. Dosskey et al.

    Assessment of concentrated flow through riparian buffers

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2002)
  • M.G. Dosskey et al.

    Establishing conservation buffers using precision information

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2005)
  • M.G. Dosskey et al.

    An approach for using soil surveys to guide the placement of water quality buffers

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2007)
  • G. Feng et al.

    Scaling from field to region for wind erosion prediction using the wind erosion prediction system and geographical information system

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2007)
  • T.W. FitzHugh et al.

    Impact of subwatershed partitioning on modeled source- and transport-limited sediment yields in an agricultural nonpoint source pollution model

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2001)
  • K.L. Fleming et al.

    Evaluating farmer developed management zone maps for precision farming

  • G.R. Foster et al.

    Evaluating irregular slopes for soil loss prediction

    J. Trans. ASAE

    (1974)
  • M.R. George et al.

    Effectiveness of nutrient supplement placement for changing beef cow distribution

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2008)
  • T.W. Goddard

    An overview of Precision Conservation in Canada

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2005)
  • M.D. Hall et al.

    Regional nitrate leaching variability: What makes a difference in Northeastern Colorado

    J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc.

    (2001)
  • L.K. Hatch et al.

    Land management at the major watershed-agroecoregion intersection

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2001)
  • J.L. Hatfield et al.

    Impacts of changing precipitation patterns on water quality

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2004)
  • J.D. Hewlett et al.

    Factors affecting the response of small watersheds to precipitation in humid regions

  • R. Khosla et al.

    Use of site-specific management zones to improve nitrogen management for precision agriculture

    J. Soil Water Conserv.

    (2002)
  • Cited by (57)

    • Modelling phosphorus removal efficiency of a reactive filter treating agricultural tile drainage water

      2020, Ecological Engineering
      Citation Excerpt :

      A few agronomic options of rather low effectiveness are available for reducing P leaching to drains (Schoumans et al., 2014). However, subsurface drainage systems concentrate diffusive flows spatially and thus provide opportunities for end-of-pipe mitigation practices (Delgado and Berry, 2008; Penn et al., 2017). Among edge-of-field options, drainage filter technologies have received rising attention as potentially cost-effective technologies for removing P from drainage water (Buda et al., 2012; Mcdowell et al., 2008).

    • Soil: The Forgotten Piece of the Water, Food, Energy Nexus

      2017, Advances in Agronomy
      Citation Excerpt :

      The primary ecosystem function at the field scale is provisioning and when we expand to the landscape scale then regulating, cultural, and supporting functions become critical factors linking the ability of the soil function. These services are a direct result of the ability to the soil to provide its functions as evidenced by methods to spatially place different practices on the landscape (Delgado and Berry, 2008; Tomer et al., 2015a,b). These methods are based on the integration of processes that link water dynamics to practices that regulate the impact of erosion or water quality.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text