Resource and Environmental Policy

Papers & Presentations

Presentation: Update on US Land Values and Cash Rents
Wendong Zhang
USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, Arlington, Virginia

Presentation: For Your RINformation: An Update on RIN Markets
Gabe Lade
National Ethanol Conference, San Antonio Texas

Presentation: Consolidation and Competition in Midwest Agriculture: Are these Game-Changers?
Keri Jacobs
University of Minnesota Crop Pest Management Short Course

Presentation: Insights for Improved Participation in the Delivery of Corn Stover to Cellulosic Ethanol Plants
Keri Jacobs
C-FARE and USDA OCE hosted discussion at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Presentation: Consolidation and Competition in Ag: Are These Game Changers?
Keri Jacobs
Iowa Chapter of American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers’ Annual Meeting

Do US Anglers Care about Harmful Algal Blooms? A discrete choice experiment of Lake Erie recreational anglers
Wendong Zhang, Brent Sohngen

Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality
David A. Keiser, Joseph K. Shapiro

Presentation: Agricultural Land Management and Downstream Water Quality: Insights from Lake Erie
Wendong Zhang
2017 Crop Advantage Series, Okoboji and Davenport, Iowa

Presentation: Sustainability of Agro-Ecosystems; An Economist’s Perspective
Wendong Zhang
Iowa State University Sustainable Agriculture Graduate Program Colloquium, Ames, Iowa

Presentation: Research Needs and Challenges in the Food, Energy and Water System: Agriculture in the Cornbelt
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Fate of the Earth Symposium 2016

Research Needs and Challenges in the FEW System: Coupling Economic Models with Agronomic, Hydrologic, and Bioenergy Models for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems
Catherine L. Kling, Raymond W. Arritt, Gray Calhoun, David A. Keiser, et al.

Economic Evaluation of Governor Branstad’s Water Quality Initiative
Dermot J. Hayes, Catherine L. Kling, John D. Lawrence

Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Benefits from Conservation Practices Targeted in Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy 2013: A Non Market Valuation Approach
Mainul Hoque, Catherine L. Kling

Presentation: Reducing the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone: how integrated water quality modeling can help design cost effective solutions
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the University of Oklahoma

Land Use Change and Policy in Iowa’s Loess Hills
Gaurav Arora, Peter T. Wolter, David A. Hennessy, Hongli Feng

Presentation: Economics of HABs: Benefits and Costs of Prevention
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at Bowling Green State University

Assessing Cost-Effectiveness of the Conservation Reserve Program and its Interaction with Crop Insurance Subsidies
Ruiqing Miao, Hongli Feng, David A. Hennessy, Xiaodong Du

Interactive APEX (i_APEX) USER’S GUIDE USING APEX2110 and APEX0806
Mark Siemers, Stephen Plotkin, Philip W. Gassman

Land Use Model Integrating Agriculture and the Environment (LUMINATE): Linkages between Agricultural Land Use, Local Water Quality and Hypoxic Concerns in the Gulf of Mexico Basin
Catherine L. Kling, Yiannis Panagopoulos, Adriana Valcu-Lisman, Philip W. Gassman, Sergey Rabotyagov, Todd Campbell, Mike White, Jeffrey G. Arnold, Raghavan Srinivasan, Manoj Jha, Jeff Richardson, R. Eugene Turner

Modeling Recreation Demand when the Access Point is Unknown
Yongjie Ji, Joseph A. Herriges, Catherine L. Kling

Presentation: Agricultural Water Pollution: Some Policy Considerations
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Iowa Environmental Council Annual Meeting

Presentation: Linking Externalities from the Land to their Consequences in the Sea: A Model of Land Use, Costs, Hydrology and the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Water Resources Conference, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Presentation: Regulatory Approaches to Address Agricultural Water Quality
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Iowa Water Conference

Native Grassland Conversion: the Roles of Risk Intervention and Switching Costs
Ruiqing Miao, David A. Hennessy, Hongli Feng

Presentation: Designing Practice Based Approaches for Water Quality Improvement
Catherine L. Kling
Upper Midwest Stream Restoration Symposium, La Crosse, Wisconsin

Presentation: Water Quality: Corn vs. Switchgrass (and Economics too)
Catherine L. Kling
Prepared for: Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine “The Nexus of Biofuels Energy, Climate Change, and Health” Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences

Economics of Dead Zones: Linking Externalities from the Land to their Consequences in the Sea, The
Sergey Rabotyagov, Catherine L. Kling, Philip W. Gassman, Nancy N. Rabalais, R. Eugene Turner

Reversing the Property Rights: Practice-Based Approaches for Controlling Agricultural Nonpoint-Source Water Pollution When Emissions Aggregate Nonlinearly
Sergey Rabotyagov, Adriana Valcu-Lisman, Catherine L. Kling

Effects of Crop Insurance Subsidies and Sodsaver on Land Use Change, The
Ruiqing Miao, David A. Hennessy, Hongli Feng

Presentation: The Economics of Dead Zones: Linking Externalities from the Land to the their Consequences in the Sea
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Nanyang Technological University and Michigan State University International Conference on the Economics and Policy of Water and the Environment, Mandarin Orchard, Singapore

Presentation: Market-Based Regulation of Agricultural Nonpoint Source Externalities
Catherine L. Kling
Supported by USDA Economic Research Service, the Farm Foundation, and Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.

Presentation: Markets and Regulation: Alternatives or Complements?
Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the 2012 Agricultural Outlook Forum, sponsored by USDA, Washington, D.C.

Presentation: The Potential for Agricultural Land Use Changes in the Raccoon River Basin to Reduce Flood Risk
Kling, Catherine L., Philip W. Gassman, Keith E. Schilling, Calvin F. Wolter, Manoj K. Jha, and Todd D. Campbell
Presented at the University of Iowa Hydraulics Laboratory, Iowa City, Iowa

Environmental Impacts of Emerging Biomass Feedstock Markets: Energy, Agriculture, and the Farmer
Rebecca S. Dodder, Amani Elobeid, Timothy L. Johnson, P. Ozge Kaplan, Lyubov A. Kurkalova, Silvia Secchi, Simla Tokgoz

A Nonlinear Offset Program to Reduce Nitrous Oxide Emissions Induced by Excessive Nitrogen Application
Francisco Rosas, Bruce A. Babcock, Dermot J. Hayes

Presentation: Economic Incentives to Improve Water Quality in Agricultural Landscapes: Some New Variations on Old Ideas
Catherine L. Kling
Fellows Address presented at the 2010 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado

Presentation: Statement at the hearing on costs and benefits of domestic offsets
Dermot J. Hayes
U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, Washington, D.C.

Presentation: Effect of Potential Future Climate Change on Cost-Effective Nonpoint Source Pollution Reduction Strategies in the UMRB

Presentation: Watershed Advisory Council First Meeting
Cathy Kling, Phil Gassman, and Manoj Jha
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Optimal Placement of Conservation Practices Using Genetic Algorithm with SWAT
Manoj Jha, Sergey Rabotyagov, Philip W. Gassman

Land Retirement Program Design in the Presence of Crop Insurance Subsidies
David A. Hennessy

Hydrologic Simulations of the Maquoketa River Watershed Using SWAT
Manoj Jha

Presentation: Statement at the hearing on indirect land use and renewable biomass provisions of the Renewable Fuels Standard
Bruce A. Babcock
Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

Agricultural Policy Environmental EXtender (APEX) Model: An Emerging Tool for Landscape and Watershed Environmental Analyses, The
Philip W. Gassman, Jimmy R. Williams, Xiuying Wang, Ali Saleh, Edward Osei, Larry M. Hauck, R. César Izaurralde, Joan D. Flowers

Buying Ecological Services: Nature’s Harmonies, Fragmented Reserves and the Agricultural Extensification Debate
David A. Hennessy, Harvey E. Lapan

Presentation: Biofuels and Water Quality in the Midwest: Corn vs. Switchgrass
Silvia Secchi, Philip W. Gassman, Manoj Jha, Lyubov Kurkalova, and Catherine L. Kling
Presented at the Iowa Water Conference, Ames, Iowa (February 2008), and the Ecological Society of America Biofuels Conference, Washington, D.C.

Presentation: Least Cost Control of Agricultural Nutrient Contributions to Local Waters and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Sergey Rabotyagov, Todd Campbell, Manoj Jha, Philip W. Gassman, Jeffrey Arnold, Lyubov Kurkalova, Silvia Secchi, Hongli Feng, and Catherine L. Kling
Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Comparison of Land Use Area Estimates from Three Different Data Sources for the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Chinnasamy Santhi, Philip W. Gassman, Silvia Secchi, Raghavan Srinivasan

Presentation: Iowa Conservation Practices: Historical Investments, Water Quality, and Gaps
Catherine L. Kling, Hongli Feng, and Philip Gassman
Progress report presented at Iowa Farm Bureau Federation offices

Impact of High Crop Prices on Environmental Quality: A Case of Iowa and the Conservation Reserve Program
Silvia Secchi, Bruce A. Babcock

Research Projects

Watershed Studies

Nonmarket Valuation

• Iowa Lakes
• Iowa Rivers
• Wetlands

Carbon Sequestration

Exploring options for reducing carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, particularly using economic incentives in the agricultural sector to sequester carbon.

Climate Change

Impacts of climate variability and change have far-reaching implications on water resources and aquatic ecosystems with possible effects including increased occurrences of floods and droughts, water quality degradation, and ecosystem impairments. The economic and environmental modeling strength at CARD, which includes integration of watershed models such as SWAT, econometric models, GIS based interfaces, and other supporting software and databases, was coupled with an array of climate models to evaluate the possible impacts of climate change on water resources both in terms of water quantity and quality.

Highlights

Economic Value of Outdoor Recreation Activities in Iowa
Daniel Otto, Kristin Tylka, and Susan Erickson
Department of Economics, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University
Commissioned by the Nature Conservancy with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
September, 2012

Interactive Iowa map with river trips, spending, and activites data

Iowa State Wins $20 million Grant to Research Impacts of Climate on Corn-based Cropping Systems
Catherine Kling and Philip Gassman of CARD to participate in the project.

Fact Sheet: Iowa Rivers and River Corridors Survey 2009

Nearly Half of Iowans Surveyed Visit Iowa’s Rivers and Streams (news release)

Final project report: "Understanding the Usage Patterns and Most Desirable Characteristics of Iowa’s Rivers and Streams"
October 2010

NSF Funding Advances Iowa State Team’s Research on Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia

Economic Incentives to Improve Water Quality in Agricultural Landscapes: Some New Variations on Old Ideas
Catherine L. Kling
Fellows Address presented at the 2010 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO

New Invited Paper in Transactions of the ASABE
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has published The Agricultural Policy Environmental EXtender (APEX) Model: An Emerging Tool for Landscape and Watershed Environmental Analyses in Transactions of the ASABE as part of the journal’s ongoing invited paper series established by the ASABE Soil and Water Division. CARD researcher Philip Gassman was lead author of the paper; co-authors at other institutions were Jimmy Williams, Xiuying (Susan) Wang, Ali Saleh, Edward Osei, Larry Hauck, César Izaurralde, and Joan Flowers. The paper provides an overview of the APEX structure and describes several innovative applications of the model that have been reported in the scientific literature.

New Research Initiative on Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia and Land Use in the Watershed
The annual extent of the seasonal oxygen-depleted hypoxic (dead) zone that forms in the Northern Gulf of Mexico is about three times the target goal of the Hypoxia Action Plan. The 2007 scientific reassessment of causes and consequences of these hypoxic conditions suggests that both nitrogen and phosphorous loadings from the Upper Mississippi River Basin and Ohio River Basin stream systems are significant contributors to the size and duration of the zone, accounting for about 70% of the total nitrogen and nearly 60% of the phosphorous loading to the Gulf. Read more.

CARD Gets Grants from U.S. EPA to Evaluate Water Quality Trading
Art Spratlin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7, shakes hands with Gerald Miller, ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, after an announcement of $600,000 in grant funding to CARD-ISU from the EPA to evaluate land conservation practices and the effects on three Iowa watersheds.

The Economic Value of Iowa’s Natural Resources
Daniel Otto, Dan Monchuk, Kanlaya Jintanakul, and Catherine Kling
Department of Economics, ISU Extension, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, College of Agriculture, and Iowa State University
Commissioned by the Sustainable Funding for Natural Resources Study Committee, Iowa General Assembly
December, 2007

Conservation Practices in Iowa: Historical Investments, Water Quality, and Gaps
Catherine Kling, Sergey Rabotyagov, Manoj Jha, Hongli Feng, Josh Parcel, Philip Gassman, and Todd Campbell
A Report to the Farm Bureau, Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association, and Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, July 22, 2007

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool: Historical Development, Applications, and Future Research Directions
P.W. Gassman, M.R. Reyes, C.H. Green, and J.G. Arnold
Invited Paper Series, Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 50, Number 4

The Cost of Clean Water: Assessing Agricultural Pollution Reduction at the Watershed Scale
Silvia Secchi, Philip Gassman, Manoj Jha, Lyubov Kurkalova, Hongli Feng, Todd Campbell, and Catherine Kling
Report on research supported by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources
July 2005