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Assessing Agriculture Conservation Practice Impacts on Groundwater Levels at Watershed Scale

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Abstract

Over the last several decades, increased groundwater usage by agriculture with a consequence of groundwater resource depletion has motivated the discussion of sustainability of groundwater resource. In this study, to investigate the impacts of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) on groundwater level, two kinds of conservation practices and five scenarios of tail water recovery pond and crop rotation were simulated by various groundwater recharge and pumping plans in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODFLOW models in an agriculture watershed in Mississippi, U.S.. The calibrated and validated ground water model indicated coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.81 and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) of 0.79 respectively. The results from this study showed that the groundwater recharge changed with irrigation plans and surface hydrological impact of management practices. In addition, it determined that tail water recovery pond could help mitigate groundwater depletion. The groundwater recharge due to continuous corn crop scenario was 7% higher in average than that of the continuous soybean. Non-growing season groundwater recharge may be critical for groundwater recovery. The average groundwater level was increased continuous corn scenario by 15%, continuous soybean by 13%, and corn-soybean by 14% as compare to the baseline scenario with rice planted. Results of this study can be helpful for planning on how various BMPs impact on groundwater.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the partial financial support of AFRI competitive grant award # 2013-67020-21407, and 2017-67020-26375, from the USDA/NIFA for this project. We would like to acknowledge the support of Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District; USGS; and all our collaborators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University, 130 Creelman St., Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Xiaojing Ni & Prem B. Parajuli

  2. USDA Forest Service, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, 775 Stone Blvd., Thompson Hall, Room 309, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Ying Ouyang

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  1. Xiaojing Ni
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  2. Prem B. Parajuli
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Correspondence to Xiaojing Ni.

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Ni, X., Parajuli, P.B. & Ouyang, Y. Assessing Agriculture Conservation Practice Impacts on Groundwater Levels at Watershed Scale. Water Resour Manage 34, 1553–1566 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02526-3

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