Advances
in Precision Conservation
Jorge A. Delgado* and Joseph K. Berry**
…book chapter in Advances in Agronomy edited by Donald
L. Sparks,
volume 98, chapter 1, pages 1-44, Elsevier publishers, 2008.
*USDA-ARS, Soil
Plant Nutrient Research Unit, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526
**Berry and
Associates, Spatial Information Systems, Fort Collins, Colorado 80525
Contact Jorge Delgado at Jorge.Delgado@ARS.USDA.GOV for a reprint
of this chapter.
Links to other papers on this topic are posted at www.innovativegis.com/basis/Papers/Online_Papers.htm.
______________________________
Contents
Topic |
Page |
1.
Introduction |
2 |
2.
Geospatial Technologies |
4 |
3.
Identifying Spatial Patterns and Relationships |
9 |
4. Field
Level Flows |
12 |
4.1. Variable erosion and transport (flows
of gases, nutrients, and water) |
12 |
4.2. Precision conservation for management
of flows |
16 |
5.
Connection of Field with Off-Site Transport |
17 |
5.1. Variable flows from field to nonfarm
areas |
17 |
5.2. Precision conservation buffers and
riparian zones |
20 |
6. Watershed
Scale Considerations |
22 |
6.1. Variable hydrology |
22 |
6.2. Models and tools |
22 |
6.3. Precision conservation at a
watershed scale |
24 |
7.
Current Applications and Trends |
28 |
8.
Summary and Conclusions |
39 |
References |
39 |
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.