Across the nation, researchers, officials, agricultural producers, and other community stakeholders are collaborating to turn the tide of poor water quality issues. By developing a statewide watershed data hub, the Knowledge Exchange (KX) is playing an important role in improving water quality throughout Ohio.
Because land isn’t flat, water takes a complex journey through the landscape – flowing over farmland, parking lots, backyards, and forests down to a drainage point where it empties into another body of water. These large areas of land are called watersheds. Every watershed has designated uses; whether for drinking water, fishing, or recreation, healthy watersheds are vital to communities. Understanding watersheds and where water is going is especially critical in agriculture for managing nutrient runoff.
To assist watershed planning efforts across the nation, the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) developed a geospatial data modeling tool called the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF). The ACPF allows producers, crops advisors, and community leaders to visualize where conservation practices may be placed in a watershed based on publicly available geo-spatial data.
The ACPF National Hub, housed at Iowa State University, serves as a central point to connect states with the latest developments in the ACPF technology. State users focus on applying this technology at a local level, which has its challenges.
That’s where KX stepped in.
Working with partners across the state, KX designed the Ohio ACPF Hub: a centralized tool that connects Ohio stakeholders to the national ACPF expansion effort. The Ohio Hub offers Ohio-specific resources to help users around the state use the technology for watershed planning.
The Knowledge Exchange is the first organization outside of Iowa State to create this type of comprehensive hub. Currently in its first stage, the Ohio Hub serves as a centralized location where Ohio ACPF modelers can go to find resources and information specific to Ohio ACPF efforts. Since the landscape of Ohio is vastly different from other western states participating in the national ACPF efforts, our modelers need to be aware of the best available data to support their needs. The Ohio ACPF Hub can provide these modelers with vetted data sources as well as tips and tricks on how to run models in flat terrain.
Using this data to run the ACPF model results in a map that can help outline nutrient management options. The map provides a field-level menu of management practices for landowners and producers to choose from to reduce nutrient and sediment loss on the farm.
While the current version is built for Ohio ACPF modelers, going forward, the Ohio Hub will focus on connecting the people who will be using the ACPF outputs for conservation planning. The output data, otherwise known as results data, will be invaluable to modelers and GIS and outreach specialists, who will be able to collaborate with researchers, producers, and landowners to interpret the data. This data will help them determine the most practical management plan for each field or area, addressing the cost of options and each landowner’s unique situation.
Matthew Romanko, a water quality associate for Ohio State University Extension, works with farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin to tackle water quality issues. He’s already been using the Ohio Hub in his conservation work.
“It’s a huge treasure trove,” Romanko said. “It feels good to actually be making some use out of the data that’s there for us.”
Specialists like Romanko promote healthy water quality practices through education and partnerships with landowners. The next phase of the ACPF tool will allow Romanko to map out the landscape and identify people he could collaborate with to develop water quality solutions on farms and properties.
Although developing watershed plans for nutrient reduction solutions isn’t a new practice, the Ohio Hub will help users devise data-driven solutions and propose more structured and comprehensive conservation plans, Romanko said.
And while land areas have different uses, watershed data can help people like Romanko understand what they may need to focus on to get nutrient loads down in each area. Output or results data from the Ohio Hub will help them assess what conservation options could be used on different parts of the landscape, based on terrain, soil types, and elevation models.
“We’ve dipped our toe into the water, and we’re learning,” Romanko said.
The National ACPF expansion effort is funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the United States Department of Agriculture.