Water Conservation Decision-making by Producers on the Ogallala Aquifer PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Water Conservation Decision-making by Producers on the Ogallala Aquifer PDF full book. Access full book title Water Conservation Decision-making by Producers on the Ogallala Aquifer by Rebekah Carnes. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Rebekah Carnes Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
This study investigates the roles of values, beliefs, and norms in water conservation decisions made by producers on the Ogallala Aquifer, in order to better understand the motivating factors that could lead toward environmental sustainability in this region of groundwater depletion. I focus on an over-arching question: how do farmers make decisions regarding water conservation? This question is broken into two specific sub-questions. First, how does culture affect decision-making? How do farmers' beliefs, values, political ideologies, and education influence their concern for the environment, measured by the extent to which they elevate guiding principles such as "respecting the earth, harmony with other species, protecting the environment, preserving nature, unity with nature, and fitting in with nature"? Secondly, how does the climate, and potentially climate change, affect the attitudes that prompt and justify decisions? This research relies on data from the 2019 Ogallala Producer Survey, and Climate data from the USGS in corresponding counties, and examines these questions through a series of regression models.
Author: Rebekah Carnes Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
This study investigates the roles of values, beliefs, and norms in water conservation decisions made by producers on the Ogallala Aquifer, in order to better understand the motivating factors that could lead toward environmental sustainability in this region of groundwater depletion. I focus on an over-arching question: how do farmers make decisions regarding water conservation? This question is broken into two specific sub-questions. First, how does culture affect decision-making? How do farmers' beliefs, values, political ideologies, and education influence their concern for the environment, measured by the extent to which they elevate guiding principles such as "respecting the earth, harmony with other species, protecting the environment, preserving nature, unity with nature, and fitting in with nature"? Secondly, how does the climate, and potentially climate change, affect the attitudes that prompt and justify decisions? This research relies on data from the 2019 Ogallala Producer Survey, and Climate data from the USGS in corresponding counties, and examines these questions through a series of regression models.
Author: Sydney Reynolds Publisher: ISBN: Category : Groundwater Languages : en Pages : 176
Book Description
With withdrawals from the Ogallala Aquifer continuing to exceed the recharge rate, water conservation is of great importance in the Texas High Plains. In this area, producers must continuously reexamine their production decisions as groundwater availability diminishes. Two studies were conducted which evaluate the economic effects of producer responses to declining water availability from the Ogallala Aquifer. Study one provides the dynamically iterative results from a MATLAB-based economic intertemporal allocation model that combines the economic decisions faced by producers, influenced by groundwater availability, and the changes in the available resources which affect future decision-making regarding groundwater use in the Palo Duro and Double Mountain Fork Watersheds. The temporal allocation results reflect how the conditions that producers face will change over the planning horizon under six scenarios including the status quo, a 10 and 25 percent acreage reduction, an increase of energy prices, and an increase and decrease in precipitation. In both watersheds, an increase in precipitation results in an increase in both producer profit and value added. In Hartley County within the Palo Duro Watershed, a 10 percent acreage reduction results in the lowest decline in the sum of projected producer profit ($1,812 million) with a 3.3 percent decrease from the status quo. As the availability of water declines, so does the yield, revenue, and overall profitability for each crop. However, the policies that conserve the greatest amount of water may not be the most ideal situation for producers. Focusing on value added, a 25 percent reduction in irrigated acres provides the second highest increase in value added for the rural economy. This scenario also projects a 6.4 percent decrease in total water use and a 25.9 increase in ending saturated thickness. In Lynn County and the Double Mountain Fork Watershed, the considerably lower starting well capacity and saturated thickness result in the acreage reduction scenarios being the only scenarios in which there is any change in total water use or ending saturated thickness. As groundwater levels continue to decline in the Ogallala Aquifer, stakeholders, policymakers, and producers encourage the adoption of new irrigation technology in an effort to conserve groundwater, extend the economic life of the aquifer, and enhance profitability. Study two evaluates the economic feasibility of one such technology currently receiving attention in the Central Ogallala region, the mobile drip irrigation (MDI) application system. This study compares MDI to low elevation spray application irrigation by evaluating the changes in variable cost per hectare to calculate the payback period for a MDI system under three levels of investment cost for grain and fiber crops representing three levels of water use while holding yield constant. Using a 3% discount rate, under the medium level of investment cost ($371 per hectare), a discounted payback period of 4.9, 9.0, and 6.3 years is required for corn, cotton, and sorghum/wheat, respectively. As the cost per hectare to convert an existing center pivot drops to $185 per hectare, the payback period also drops to 2.3, 4.2, and 3.0 years, respectively. Thus, producers growing higher water use crops are able to recover the costs of the conversion to MDI through increased water use efficiency quicker than producers growing medium and lower water use crops.
Author: John Opie Publisher: U of Nebraska Press ISBN: 1496207289 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 434
Book Description
The Ogallala aquifer, a vast underground water reserve extending from South Dakota through Texas, is the product of eons of accumulated glacial melts, ancient Rocky Mountain snowmelts, and rainfall, all percolating slowly through gravel beds hundreds of feet thick. Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land is an environmental history and historical geography that tells the story of human defiance and human commitment within the Ogallala region. It describes the Great Plains’ natural resources, the history of settlement and dryland farming, and the remarkable irrigation technologies that have industrialized farming in the region. This newly updated third edition discusses three main issues: long-term drought and its implications, the efforts of several key groundwater management districts to regulate the aquifer, and T. Boone Pickens’s failed effort to capture water from the aquifer to supply major Texas urban areas. This edition also describes the fierce independence of Texas ranchers and farmers who reject any governmental or bureaucratic intervention in their use of water, and it updates information about the impact of climate change on the aquifer and agriculture. Read Char Miller's article on theconversation.com to learn more about the Ogallala Aquifer.
Author: Stephen Lauer Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Rural communities in the U.S. High Plains rely on groundwater from the declining Ogallala aquifer. I apply the sociological concepts of social structure, culture, and agency to understand the relationships between farmers/producers and groundwater management. My mixed methods approach includes quantitative modeling of secondary data, a survey of producers across the Ogallala Aquifer region, interviews with producers in Western Kansas, and a case study of sustained civic engagement among the producers who formed the Wichita County Water Conservation Area (WCA). My model of secondary data shows no association between groundwater extraction and human development at the county level. This suggests that the benefits of groundwater extraction are not being reinvested into local human and financial capitals. My interviews with producers provide support for a treadmill of production and for reinvestment into local cultural and social capitals. Consistent with a treadmill of production, producers described how investments in irrigation infrastructure make it costly for them to conserve groundwater. They described how irrigation increases cultural and social capital through higher populations, increased community cohesion, and maintaining their way of life. My survey of producers indicates that an overwhelming majority (92%) agree that groundwater should be conserved, primarily to benefit future generations (86%), support local jobs and businesses (66%), provide insurance against drought (63%), and continue the economic viability of irrigated agriculture (60%). Most producers (72%) believe they are already doing all they can individually to conserve groundwater on their operations. Interviews with producers indicate that those who become involved voluntary group conservation efforts find additional ways to conserve. Most producers (84%) are open to the possibility that voluntary group conservation may be effective and that they might have something personally to contribute to such efforts, but few (7%) are currently involved. My interviews show that values, beliefs, and norms are important to their individual and collective groundwater management decisions. However, my model of survey data suggests that differences in producers' values, beliefs, and norms do not explain which producers are civically engaged in voluntary group conservation efforts. I argue that civic engagement is contingent, in that structural and cultural factors must align in a particular community to enable producers to choose to pursue voluntary group conservation. My interviews with producers and case study of the Wichita County WCA support this explanation. Wichita County was primed for voluntary group conservation through structural and cultural factors, including a quantity of groundwater that made conservation efforts both urgent and promising, a single town that producers value and which economically relies on groundwater, and previous efforts that raised local awareness about groundwater conservation. The Wichita County WCA team sustained civic engagement through solidarity, developing a shared sense of meaning and purpose, and taking a diffuse and relational approach to leadership. They managed emotions such as fear, grief, despair, and frustration in a manner consistent with the Public Narrative model of social action. Key factors in their success included an early focus on teambuilding, diverse stakeholder representation, bringing in an outside facilitator, frequent and respectful community outreach, and partnering with state and local government. Voluntary group efforts are effective at conserving groundwater and merit support.
Author: Chittaranjan Ray Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 303085728X Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
In this book, major issues surrounding importance of water and energy for food security in the United States and India are described representing two extremes in yield, irrigation efficiency, and automation. The farming systems in these two countries face different risks in terms of climatic shifts and systems’ resiliency to handle the shocks. One may have comparative advantage over the other, but both are susceptible. Innovations in irrigation for food and fuel production, improvements in nitrogen and water use efficiency, and rural sociological issues are discussed here. We also look into some of the unintended consequences of high productivity agriculture in terms of surface and ground water quality and impacts on ecosystem services. Finally, we present ways to move forward to meet the food demands in the next half-century in both countries. As the current world population of 7 billion is expected to reach or exceed 10 billion in the next 40 years, there will be significant additional demand for food. A rising middle class and its preference for a meat-based diet also increases the demand for animal feed. This additional food and feed production needs special considerations in water and energy management besides the development of appropriate crop hybrids to withstand future climatic shifts and other environmental factors. A resilient agricultural landscapes will also be needed to withstand climatic fluctuations, disease pressures, etc. While the upper and many middle income countries have made significant improvements in crop yield due to pressurized irrigation and automation in farming systems, the lower income countries are struggling with yield enhancements due to such limitations. The rise in population is expected to be more in Sub-Sharan Africa and Middle East (Low to middle-income countries) where the crop yields are expected to be low.
Author: Ali Fares Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3319320084 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 421
Book Description
This book discusses how emerging groundwater risks under current and potential climate change conductions reduce available groundwater resources for domestic use, and agriculture and energy production. The topics discussed throughout this book are grouped into five sections; (i) Sea Level Rise, Climate Change, and Food Security, (ii) Emerging Contaminants, (iii) Technologies and Decision Support Systems, (iv) Surface Water-Groundwater Interactions, and (v) Economics, and Energy Production and Development. This book is unique and different from other groundwater hydrology books in that it uses a holistic approach in investigating the risks related to groundwater resources. This book will be of interest to a wide audience in academia, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and environmental entities. This book will greatly contribute to a better understanding of the emerging risks to groundwater resources and should help responsible stakeholders make informed decisions in this regard.
Author: Rebekah Carnes
Author: Rebekah Carnes
Author: Sydney Reynolds
Author: Jeffrey W. Johnson
Author: John Opie
Author: Stephen Harold Amosson
Author: Stephen Lauer
Author: Chittaranjan Ray
Author: Ali Fares
Author: 
Author: B. J. Claborn