Flood Risk Reduction from Agricultural Best Management Practices

On optimal placement of best management practices in agricultural watersheds

This article presents analysis and synthesis of findings concerning the problem of costeffective placement of best management practices (BMPs) emerging from NIFA CEAP and the USDA NRCS jointly-funded competitive grant projects, and future research needs. The synthesis focuses on two fundamental aspects of the cost-effectiveness problem: (1) how to assess the locationand farmer-specific costs of...

Agricultural best management practices for water pollution control: current issues

From the first awareness of agricultural sources of water pollution in the US in the 1960s, we finally see in the 1990s a commitment at the national level for agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution control. This has been occasioned by a growing awareness that, with point sources of some pollutants largely controlled by waste-water treatment, greater attention must be paid to NPS pollutio...

Best Practices in Credit Risk Management

Pathogen reduction co-benefits of nutrient best management practices

BACKGROUND Many of the practices currently underway to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads entering the Chesapeake Bay have also been observed to support reduction of disease-causing pathogen loadings. We quantify how implementation of these practices, proposed to meet the nutrient and sediment caps prescribed by the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), could reduce pathogen loadings an...

Combined effects of best management practices on water quality in oxbow lakes from agricultural watersheds

Water quality conditions in three oxbow lakes were examined before and after best management practices (BMPs) implementation within the Mississippi Delta. Experimental design called for the development of structural and cultural treatments to reduce sediment and associated pollutants entering watershed oxbow lakes. Three watersheds were selected and developed with different levels of BMPs. Chan...