Title: | Development of Agricultural Conservation Reduction Estimator (ACRE), a simple field-scale conservation planning and evaluation tool |
Authors: | White, M., M. DiLuzio, M. Gambone, D. Smith, E. McLellan, K. Bieger, J. Arnold, R. Haney and J. Gao |
Year: | 2019 |
Journal: | Journal of Soil and Water Conservation |
Volume (Issue): | 74 (6) |
Pages: | 537-544 |
Article ID: | |
DOI: | 10.2489/jswc.74.6.537 |
URL (non-DOI journals): | |
Model: | SWAT |
Broad Application Category: | pollutant only |
Primary Application Category: | BMP and/or cropping system assessment |
Secondary Application Category: | pollutant cycling/loss and transport |
Watershed Description: | Conterminous U.S. (over 48 states). |
Calibration Summary: | |
Validation Summary: | |
General Comments: | The authors describe the development of a simple user tool called the Agricultural Conservation Reduction Estimator (ACRE), which is based on a national database of export coefficients that was built using the Texas Best management practice Evaluation Tool (TBET) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models in conjunction with BMP efficiency data. See the following study for more information about TBET: White, M.W., R.D. Harmel and R.L. Haney. 2012. Development and validation of the Texas Best Management Practice Evaluation Tool (TBET). Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 67(6): 525-535. Doi: 10.2489/jswc.67.6.525. |
Abstract: | The United States spends billions of dollars each year on subsidized conservation
practices to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution from agricultural lands with little
assessment of how much those loads were reduced. A variety of tools are available to predict
the effects of conservation practices, but these either suffer from a lack of accuracy due to
limited monitoring data, or are model-based and too complex for use by conservation planners.
In this research, we detail the development of a simple tool to fill this need, called the
Agricultural Conservation Reduction Estimator (ACRE). ACRE is driven by an extensive
national database of export coefficients developed using the Texas Best management practice
Evaluation Tool (TBET) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models combined with
conservation practice efficiencies derived from a mixture of literature values and model simulations.
The previously calibrated and validated TBET/SWAT was applied nationally using
data from the National Agricultural Model, an effort by the USDA Agricultural Research
Service to construct publicly available data sets for modeling at national scale. ACRE uses
distributional information from both model predictions and literature estimates to perform
a Monte-Carlo based estimate of sediment and nutrient loads (with confidence limits) from
cultivated cropland. ACRE meets an important need by providing science-based estimates
of conservation practice benefits |
Language: | English |
Keywords: | conservation, nutrient, sediment, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), water quality |