Organizational Unit:

Georgia Water Resources Institute

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70796

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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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Agriculture Water Permitting: Turning Regional Plans into Permitting Decisions

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-03) Hook, James E. ; Harrison, Kerry A. ; Lewis, Cliff ; Betts, Danna ; Alfonso, Amber

During 2006, the Flint River Basin Water Conservation and Development Plan (FRBP) and the Coastal Georgia Water and Wastewater Permitting Plan for Managing Saltwater Intrusion (CZP) were adopted by Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Both had big impacts on permitting of agricultural water withdrawals. Moratoria had been in place postponing new permits. With acceptance of the plans, a flood of backlogged applications, some as old as six years, had to be processed. Permit rule changes in the plans or brought about by concomitant new legislation had to be implemented. The newly formed Agriculture Permitting Unit was relocated to Tifton, and UGA personnel assisted in transforming EPD permitting processes to speed up processing to handle the backlog and implement new regional plans. Existing permits and new applications were incorporated into a geodatabase since most permitting decisions are location specific. GIS tools and models were developed to systematically and objectively evaluate applications, and procedures were established to improve the communication between EPD and agricultural applicants.
Tillage-Based Water Conservation on Farms in the Southeastern United States

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-03) Endale, Dinku M. ; Schomberg, H. H. ; Reeves, D. W. ; Hook, James E.

Conservation tillage, particularly no-till, has a significant role to play toward achieving agricultural water conservation goals envisaged in Georgia’s Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Planning Act of 2004. We base this on scientific evidence from across the country and our own research showing that conservation tillage allows substantially more of rain and/or irrigation water to infiltrate/percolate into the soil compared to conventional tillage methods, thus reducing much runoff waste. In one study spanning May 1, 1997 to May 5, 1998 near Watkinsville, GA, we found an extra 6.93 inches of rain water infiltrated into the soil profile in a no-till cotton/rye system compared to conventional tillage. This represents 14% of the average annual rainfall and is equivalent to more than 188 billion gallons of water from one million acres of cropland, which is about a third of Georgia’s harvested cropland. Annual irrigation use in Georgia fluctuates between 100 and 300 billion gallons. Additionally, conservation tillage reduces sediment that alters critical habitat and stream flow, and reduces non-point source contaminants that require additional assimilative capacity in those streams. While the current agricultural water conservation plan rightly targets potential waste in irrigated agriculture through retrofitting irrigation system components, conservation tillage offers water conservation both in irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture. For this potential to materialize, aggressive leadership that provides both political will and appropriate resources is needed across all government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in natural resource policy formulation, research, education, extension, and outreach
Impact of local weather variability on irrigation water use in Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-04) Guerra, Larry C. ; Garcia y Garcia, Axel ; Hoogenboom, Gerrit ; Hook, James E. ; Harrison, Kerry A. ; Boken, Vijendra K.

Irrigation is often used to offset the impact of rainfall variability on crop yield and to reduce the risk associated with weather variability. However, especially for the state of Georgia, how much water is required and how much water is actually being used for irrigation is largely unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between farmers' irrigation applications, crop types, and local weather conditions. Farmers' monthly irrigation applications for three major crops in Georgia, i.e., cotton, peanut and maize, were obtained from selected sites of the Agricultural Water Pumping program. Significant relationships between monthly irrigation depth and monthly water deficit were obtained for only two of seven months for cotton, five of seven months for peanut, and only one of six months for maize. Individual differences among farmers on how much water they applied contributed to the lack of correlation between monthly irrigation depth and monthly water deficit. Future efforts should focus on a better understanding of the factors that contribute to the farmer's decisions related to when to irrigate and how much water to apply.
The potential of a decision support system to simulate irrigation scheduling in southwest Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-04) Garcia y Garcia, Axel ; Guerra, Larry C. ; Hoogenboom, Gerrit ; Hook, James E. ; Harrison, Kerry A.

A decision support system was used to simulate irrigation scheduling for maize, cotton, and peanut for the 2001 to 2004 cropping seasons in southwest Georgia. The results were compared with observed data from the Agricultural Water Pumping (AWP) project. The comparison of the cumulative distribution functions between simulated and observed monthly amounts of irrigation showed significant differences for the three crops. However, almost 50% of the simulated cotton and peanut monthly amounts of irrigation were adequately correlated with the observed data. The analysis and comparison of the observed and simulated irrigation scheduling showed the potential that the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) crop simulation models can be used as a tool for on-farm irrigation scheduling.
Water Use Estimation for Some Major Crops in Georgia Using Geospatial Modeling

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Boken, Vijendra K. ; Hoogenboom, Gerrit ; Guerra, Larry C. ; Hook, James E. ; Thomas, Daniel L. ; Harrison, Kerry A.

Agricultural water use estimation can contribute to finding a satisfactory solution of the water dispute among the states of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. In this paper, the depths of irrigation for cotton, peanut, corn, and soybean are estimated for the Flint, Central, and Coastal water zones of Georgia for 2000, 2001, and 2002. In addition, the volume of irrigation for these crops are estimated for 2000 and 2001. The estimation was based on the spatial interpolation of the data collected under the Agricultural Water Pumping project. The interpolation techniques included the inverse distance weighting, local polynomial, global polynomial, radial basis function, ordinary kriging, and universal kriging. The total volume of irrigation was highest for the Flint zone (578.4 Mm3 ), followed by the Central zone (296.3 Mm3 ) and the Coastal zone (103.0 Mm3 ) for 2000. For 2001, the irrigation volume declined by 41% for the Flint zone, 31% for the Central zone, and 20% for the Coastal zone.
Agricultural Water Use in Georgia: Results from the Ag. Water Pumping Program

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Thomas, Daniel L. ; Harrison, Kerry A. ; Hook, James E. ; Hoogenboom, Gerrit ; McClendon, R. W. ; Wheeler, L.

This paper presents the results for the period 1999 to 2002 from the monitoring program that is estimating agricultural water use across the entire state of Georgia. This program is called AG. WATER PUMPING (Agricultural Water: Potential Use and Management Program in Georgia). Current conflicts on water allocation in the ACT (Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa) and ACF (Apalachicola, Flint, and Chattahoochee) river basins, saltwater intrusion effects in the 24 county area of southeast Georgia, water level declines in the central region, and other potential impacts on water use are all limited by the lack of available information on agricultural water use. This 5-year project is nearing completion. The results for calendar years 2001 and 2002 are based on the complete monitoring site installation whereas previous years were during the installation (incomplete coverage in selected parts of the state).
Estimating Statewide Irrigation Requirements Using a Crop Simulation Model

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Guerra, Larry C. ; Hoogenboom, Gerrit ; Boken, Vijendra K. ; Thomas, Daniel L. ; Hook, James E. ; Harrison, Kerry A.

An understanding of water needs in agriculture is a critical input in resolving the water resource issues that confront the state of Georgia. Unfortunately, how much water is required and how much water is actually being used for irrigation is unknown. The objective of this study was to estimate water demand for irrigation for the entire state of Georgia using a crop simulation model. The irrigation requirements for all the counties where irrigated cotton, corn, peanut and soybean were grown in 2000, 2001 and 2002 were estimated using the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model. These counties were distributed across seven regions; with three regions, i.e., Flint Basin, Central Coastal Plain and Coastal Zone, representing the major growing areas. The combined irrigation withdrawal in the Flint Basin, Central Coastal Plain and Coastal Zone accounted for about 98% and 99% of the statewide total irrigation withdrawal in 2000 and 2001, respectively, mainly due to large irrigated acreage in those regions. Statewide total irrigation withdrawal was estimated to be 199,125 Mgallons in 2000 and 114,101 Mgallons in 2001. These irrigation requirements will vary from year to year depending on the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall during the growing season. Total irrigated acreage also had a major impact on irrigation withdrawal. We will implement the model for other crops to determine the total irrigation withdrawals for agriculture in the state of Georgia.
Flint River Basin Water Policy and Management: Achieving Sustainability through Regional Flexibility

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Blood, Elizabeth R. ; Holland, Marjorie M. ; Hook, James E.

Regional approaches to comprehensive freshwater planning and management are emerging in Georgia. The evolution of public policy in the Flint River reflects the factors that are contributing to “regionalism” in problem identification and resolution. While the public policy process in the Flint River was similar in the initial stages, two distinctly different societal approaches are evolving to formulate and implement comprehensive freshwater planning. Regional patterns of water use, impacts on natural systems, and opportunities for achieving freshwater sustainability are resulting from the interplay of regional differences in water source and capacity with economics, demographics, and governance. Leadership and culture are important factors in the institutions and processes that are evolving to meet the challenge. An urban-business model is evolving in the upper basin and a rural-grassroots model in the lower basin. Such differences clearly point to the need for a flexible and adaptive approach to sub-state water resource planning and management.
Recommendations for Metering Agricultural Water Withdrawals in Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Thomas, Daniel L. ; Harrison, Kerry A. ; Norton, Virgil ; Norton, Nancy A. ; Hook, James E. ; Eigenberg, D.A. ; Wheeler, L.

The purpose of this short document is to provide general recommendations for approaches to measuring agricultural irrigation withdrawals from surface and ground water resources for the state of Georgia. With over 20,000 permitted withdrawals already in place, this will not be a trivial task. Many of these recommendations have been incorporated into House Bill 237 which was introduced during the 2003 legislative session in Georgia.
Agricultural Water Withdrawal Permits: A GIS-Based Permit Management System and Permit Mapping in Dougherty Plain

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2003-04) Hook, James E. ; Blood, Elizabeth R. ; McDowell, Robin John ; Betts, Danna ; Fussell, Derek

When agriculture was first brought under the permitting provisions of the Ground Water Use Act and the Water Quality Control Act in 1988, thousands of preexisting agricultural water users were grandfathered. As the State moved into a period of restrictions on withdrawals and began planning for future water users, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) needed a new system for permit management and needed more information on existing users. UGA, NESPAL, J.W. Jones Ecological Research Center, EPD and farmers have worked together to produce a GIS-based permit management system and to map permitted withdrawal points and irrigation areas. The process began in the Dougherty Plain with the voluntary mapping effort of farmers and landowners. Over 80% of the 8692 Agricultural Withdrawal Permits in the 17 counties area have been identified and entered into the system. To date 768,000 irrigated acres have been identified there. The GIS permit mapping system has been incorporated into the Agricultural Permitting Unit of EPD.