Research Support for Climate Responsive Agricultural Water Management 

photo credit: Tom Dickinson, CU

This enhanced landsat image shows the stark contrast between the bright green areas that receive water from irrigation and areas that do not.  Note that some of the green is being farmed, and some is getting the benefit of what could be called "wasted water" which actually supports the environment along the highly regulated rivers.

As demand for water for municipal, environmental and other uses increases, agricultural water is facing pressure to transfer water away from irrigation, the largest use of water in the West.  The traditional means of transfer, "buy-and-dry", has resulted in locally very severe social and economic impacts, and may also threaten recreational, amenity, and environmental values that are important for the future of rural areas.  Until recently, the only way to reallocate water was to buy the water rights, move the transferable amount away, and leave the farmland dry.  In the last ten years, however, increasing urbanization and severe drought have stimulated discussion of new legal forms for water transfer using market mechanisms and increased flexibility; these include short-term reversible leases or "water banks", and longer-term commitments to move water under specified conditions such as dry years or on a rotating basis.  Such flexibility is needed to respond to climate forecasts and perhaps for optimal adaptation to climate change. For the past year, researchers at RAL and the University of Colorado, with support from NOAA, have been examining these new water management techniques. 

FY06 Accomplishments:

A workshop on potential farm management issues, including questions such as the feasibility of changing crop rotations and farm asset management to accommodate the new flexibility in water management, was organized and conducted.  An expert group of participants from the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, farmers, farm equipment dealers, and Co-Operative Extension Faculty from Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado found no general problems with the new techniques, though they noted that there is no "on size fits all" solution as farming is a tremendously variable, place-specific and adaptive combination of resources, climate and weather, capital and assets.  The summary and reference discussion are being revised and will be posted on the project website.  The workshop also addressed biological and ecological issues inherent in changes in water management practices.  Preliminary findings were presented at the annual Society for Conservation Biology meeting in San Jose, California, in June 2006. 

FY07 Plans:

In the course of conducting the workshop and participating in the Conservation Biology meeting it became apparent that there is a surprising lack of research concerning the ecology of agricultural water distribution and "hybrid ecologies".  As a result, the next step will be a series of interviews to enable in-depth probing of these topics with regionally-active scientists.  Researchers from the "closest neighbor" field of invasive plant studies have agreed to assist in the biological issues review effort.  A second area of research in FY07 will be the socioeconomics of more flexible water management, particularly with regard to impacts on rural agricultural areas.