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Maquoketa River Watershed, Iowa
Application of an Environmental and Economic Modeling System for Watershed Assessments,
A major development of the National Pilot Project was CEEOT-LP, an integrated modeling system designed to produce economic and environmental indicators for alternative policy scenarios applied to intensive livestock production watersheds. The system consists of a farm economic model (FEM) and two environmental models: the field-scale APEX model and the watershed-level SWAT model. To date, CEEOT-LP has been applied to two watersheds in Texas and one in Iowa. Predicted reductions in P losses for two P-based manure application rate scenarios, relative to baseline conditions, ranged from 4 to 54% across the three watersheds; however, N loss impacts ranged from a decrease of 34% to an increase of 79%. For five other alternative scenarios that were simulated for only one watershed, N and P loss impacts ranged between a reduction of 78% to an increase of 20%. Aggregate watershed-level economic impacts of the seven scenarios spanned a spectrum of a 27% decrease to a 25% increase in income, relative to the baseline. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Vol 38(2):423-438, April 2002
Livestock and the Environment: CEEOT-LP Modeling for the Upper Maquoketa River Watershed, Iowa, The Upper Maquoketa River Watershed in northeastern Iowa is dominated by agriculture. Fishing is also a substantial component of the region's community and economy. Watershed residents have expressed concern about nonpoint source pollution to the Maquoketa River and data from various sources indicate that surface waters of the UMRW are affected by nonpoint source contaminants, primarily sediment and nutrients. This report addresses current farm practices that contribute to the pollutant and sediment loads by utilizing the Comprehensive Economic and Environmental Optimization ToolLivestock Poultry (CEEOTLP) suite of models to simulated the potential of various scenarios to reduce sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the river by altering farm management practices and production systems.
Livestock and the Environment: A National Pilot Project: CEEOT-LP Application to Environmental Issues in Poultry Production, With the rapid growth of the poultry industry in the U.S. in recent years, data and information are needed to address the environmental issues associated with poultry production operations. The main environmental concern is the potential for water quality problems when large quantities of poultry litter are generated in small geographic areas. A watershed-level evaluation tool called the Comprehensive Economic and Environmental Optimization Tool-Livestock and Poultry (CEEOTLP), earlier developed, and successfully applied, to evaluate environmental and economic impacts of alternative management methods in dairy and swine operations, will be developed and adapted for poultry operations to evaluate similar objectives.
A Nutrient Budget For the Upper Maquoketa River Watershed, Iowa, Nutrient budgets quantify nutrient inputs and outflows for a given land area or operation. This study estimates phosphorus and nitrogen budgets for eight representative livestock operations for the Upper Maquoketa River Watershed (UMRW). Nutrient loss for crop acreage outside of livestock operations and for nonagricultural sources within the watershed, e.g., urban runoff, rural septic systems, industry, and precipitation are also estimated. Nutrient losses from all sources are aggregated to obtain nutrient loss totals for the watershed.
Our colleague in Iowa, John Rodecap,
has also published some interesting results.
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