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Farm-scale decisions and basin-scale hydrologic outcomes


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Created: Mar 16, 2023 at 7:01 p.m.
Last updated: Aug 11, 2023 at 8:54 p.m.
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Abstract

Agricultural irrigation practices have changed through time as technology has enabled more efficient conveyance and application. In some agricultural regions, irrigation can contribute to incidental aquifer recharge important for groundwater return flows to streams. The Henrys Fork Snake River, Idaho (USA) overlies a portion of the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, where irrigated agriculture has occurred for over a century. Using irrigator interviews, aerial and satellite imagery, and statistical streamflow analysis, we document the impact of farm-scale decisions on basin-scale hydrology. Motivated to improve economic efficiency, irrigators began converting from surface to center-pivot sprinkler irrigation in the 1950s, with rapid adoption of center-pivot sprinklers through 2000. Between 1978–2000 and 2001–2022, annual surface-water diversion decreased by 311 Mm3 (23%) and annual return flow to the river decreased by 299 Mm3 over the same period. Some reaches that gained water during 1978–2000 lost water to the aquifer during the later period. We use an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate how individual farm-scale improvements in irrigation efficiency can cumulatively affect hydrology at the landscape-scale and alter groundwater-surface water relationships. Return flows are an important part of basin hydrology in irrigated landscapes and we discuss how managed and incidental aquifer recharge can be implemented to recover return flows to rivers.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
North Latitude
44.7604°
East Longitude
-110.9106°
South Latitude
43.7532°
West Longitude
-112.2071°

Content

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
National Science Foundation 1633756
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART Applied Science Grant R21AP10036

How to Cite

Morrisett, C., R. V. Kirk, S. Null (2023). Farm-scale decisions and basin-scale hydrologic outcomes, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/5bf4e21aa33d4e7b8a65f0791396d30c

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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