The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP): a national scale natural resources and conservation needs assessment and decision support tool

Soil Change Matters 2014

Johnson, M.-V.V.^1 ; Norfleet, M.L.^2 ; Atwood, J.D.^3 ; Behrman, K.D.^4 ; Kiniry, J.R.^4 ; Arnold, J.G.^5 ; White, M.J.^5 ; Williams, J.^6

Agronomist, United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^1

Soil Scientist, United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^2

Economist, United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^3

Research Agronomist, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^4

Agricultural Engineer, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^5

Senior Research Scientist, Texas A and M Agri-Life, Blackland Research and Extension Center, 720 East Blackland Road, Temple

TX

76502, United States^6

关键词: Agricultural conservation;    Agricultural policies;    Agricultural watersheds;    Conservation practices;    Current conservation;    Decision support tools;    Quantitative assessments;    Soil water assessment tool;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/25/1/012012/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1755-1315/25/1/012012

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was initiated to quantify the impacts of agricultural conservation practices at the watershed, regional, and national scales across the United States. Representative cropland acres in all major U.S. watersheds were surveyed in 2003-2006 as part of the seminal CEAP Cropland National Assessment. Two process-based models, the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender(APEX) and the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), were applied to the survey data to provide a quantitative assessment of current conservation practice impacts, establish a benchmark against which future conservation trends and efforts could be measured, and identify outstanding conservation concerns. The flexibility of these models and the unprecedented amount of data on current conservation practices across the country enabled Cropland CEAP to meet its Congressional mandate of quantifying the value of current conservation practices. It also enabled scientifically grounded exploration of a variety of conservation scenarios, empowering CEAP to not only inform on past successes and additional needs, but to also provide a decision support tool to help guide future policy development and conservation practice decision making. The CEAP effort will repeat the national survey in 2015-2016, enabling CEAP to provide analyses of emergent conservation trends, outstanding needs, and potential costs and benefits of pursuing various treatment scenarios for all agricultural watersheds across the United States.