Frankenberger - Do Edge of Field Monitoring Results Inform, Support, and Improve

Do Edge of Field Monitoring Results

Inform, Support, and Improve

the Predictive Models

for Water Quality Protection?

Jane FrankenbergerAgricultural & Biological Engineering

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

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Wisdom from Professor Emeritus Don Franzmeier

Field Studies

Analysis

Model Mo

del4Model applications

Models

Field

Study

Soil and water

conservation science

50 years ago

Soil and water

conservation science

Today

Auto-calibration

algorithms, conservation

practice effects, climate

change impacts, new

bioenergy crops

We use many different models

WEPP

APEX

SWAT

TOPMODEL

(or SMRM)

STEP-L or

Region 5

RZWQM

Landscape Unit(s)

Unsaturated

Saturated

Restricting Layer (if applicable)

Shallow Aquifer

Confining Layer

Deep Aquifer

Corn

Grass

Soil Profile

Tile Drains (if applicable)Ditch or Stream

What All the Models Do (more or less)

Landscape (Edge of

field) Processes

Infiltration

Tile Drainage

Plant Growth

etc.

Channel Processes

Water routing

Nutrient routing

And others… 7

SWAT simulates processes in

“hydrologic response units” or HRUs, and

aggregates them in subbasins

HRU HRUHRU HRU

HRU HRU

SubbasinSubbasin

WatershedSingle HRU SWAT Model

Landscape Unit(s)

Unsaturated

Saturated

Restricting Layer (if applicable)

Shallow Aquifer

Confining Layer

Deep Aquifer

Corn

Grass

Soil Profile

Tile Drains (if applicable)Ditch or Stream

What All the Models Do (more or less)

Modeling HydrologyPrecipitation

Transpiration (from plants)

Plant Uptake Infiltration

Percolation

Deep Percolation

Return Flow

RunoffRunoff

Evaporation (from leaves and bare soil)

Groundwater

Lateral Flow Tile Flow

What Models Do

Proportion of runoff vs.

infilitration determined by

Curve Number,

Green-Ampt, or saturation

Hooghoudt and

Kirkham equations

PhosphorusPrecipitation

Tillage

Fertilizer or manure Filter strip

effectiveness equations (empirical)

Phosphorus loss with runoff and soil erosion

Runoff interacts with solution P in top soil (10 mm)

Soil erosion (USLE, MUSLE, etc. transports organic and insoluble mineral P

Plant Uptake

What Models DoDo we have enough edge of field studies to

be confident in hundreds of process

algorithms?

Do we have enough edge of field

studies to be confident in hundreds of

process algorithms?

Model

algorithms

Models

A typical path from an edge of field

monitoring project to model paper(s)

Auto-calibration

Climate Change Impacts

Effect of a new conservation

practice

Effect of a new crop…

Barrier 1:

Only having

access to

one data set

A different model:

Corn Systems Coordinated Agriculture Project

Central Database

Models



practice


A different model: The Corn Systems

Coordinated Agricultural Project

Archived,

shared with

public after

project ends.

Additional opportunities

for data to inform and

improve models

This model requires agreement

on Publication Guidelines

Developed and signed by all

investigators

Primary data owners are given a

reasonable amount of time to publish

their own data first.

Secondary data users can publish

with collaboration and co-authorship

of primary data owner.

New project: Managing Water for

Improved Resiliency of Drained

Agricultural Landscapes



Purdue Iowa State Ohio State U. Minnesota

Eileen Kladivko

Laura Bowling

Bernie Engel

Linda ProkopyBen Reinhart

Matt Helmers

Lori Abendroth

USDA – ARS

Dan Jaynes

North Carolina

Mohamed Youssef

South Dakota

Chris Hay

Larry Brown

Brent Sohngen

North Dakota

Xinhua Jia

Jeff Strock

U. Missouri

Kelly Nelson

Supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, award

2015-68007-23193, “Managing Water for Increased Resiliency of Drained Agricultural Landscapes”,

The project: 2015-2020 Goal: Agricultural producers will be able to make informed

decisions about retaining drainage water in the landscape for increased resilience of crop production on drained land.

Project Overview

Collecting and synthesizing data from

existing and new research sites throughout

the Midwest and North Carolina

Vision: The database forms the core of

collaboration involving synthesis,

management tools, extension, education

Central Database

Models



practice


Transforming Drainage Data:

Building on the

Corn Systems CAP database

Archived,

shared with

public after

project ends.

Decision

Support Tools

The Goal: Transforming Drainage

Photo from Dan Jaynes

Long-term vision:

The process of designing and implementing

agricultural drainage will be transformed to include

water retention and even water recycling.

Placing data in archived datasets

is becoming more common.

White House’s Office of Science and

Technology Policy has instructed major

federal funding agencies to develop plans

to make both the datasets and research

articles resulting from their grants publicly

available (OSTP, 2013).

STEWARDS, LTER, other examples…

Barriers to edge of field monitoring

data access cannot all be solved by

better databases.

Is on-farm monitoring data collected at

public expense a public good OR

proprietary?

If proprietary, how can data be used to

improve and inform modeling?

If results cannot be used to improve and

inform monitoring, is this an effective

public expenditure?

Barriers cannot all be solved by better databases.

Restrictions on USDA spatial data since

2008 is a major barrier to data sharing.

Section 1619 was added to the 2008 Farm Bill

during the conference committee process (not in

Senate or House bill) without public hearings.

Restricts geospatial information including field

boundaries, conservation practice locations

SEC. 1619. INFORMATION GATHERING.

(a) GEOSPATIAL SYSTEMS.-The Secretary shall ensure that all the geospatial data of the agencies of the Department of Agriculture are portable and standardized.

(2) PROHIBITION.-Except as provided in paragraphs (3) and (4), the Secretary, any officer or employee of the Department of Agriculture, or any contractor or cooperator of the Department, shall not disclose-

(A) information provided by an agricultural producer or owner of agricultural land concerning the agricultural operation, farming or conservation practices, or the land itself, in order to participate in programs of the Department;or(B) geospatial information otherwise maintained by the Secretary about agricultural land or operationsfor which information described in subparagraph (A) is provided.

Is its purpose to address “privacy”?

Does not prevent access to personally-

identified farm subsidy information.

Is there any hope of restoring

information access?

USDA has developed means of providing

data to partners who work with USDA.

Farm Bill comes up every 5 years; it could

be changed (couldn’t it?). Changes to

legislation take a concerted, organized

effort.

How can people like us, who believe in

doing conservation better and smarter,

contribute to the effort?





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Barrier: Model complexity and

lack of best practices Are our models at the appropriate level of

complexity?

``Perfection (in design) is achieved not when

there is nothing more to add, but rather when

there is nothing more to take away.'‘

Best practices for model development include:

Version control

Well-structured software with comments so

users can follow the algorithms

Even the best software has bugs. Systematic

process for addressing them is critical.

An aside: If Microsoft Word functioned

like most of our water quality models…

There would be 20 different versions of Word.

– Some would work for only a few purposes.

– The meaning of certain keystrokes would completely

change between versions.

– Data (text) entered in one version couldn’t be used in

another version.

You’d have no support when something goes

wrong because developers are focusing on writing

papers on the program.

When the developer retired, that’s the end of the

program.

Solution: Modeling communities

Characteristics of a model that allow it to be

informed and improved by monitoring:

Source code available to all

Vibrant community of users and

developers

Clear path for community to contribute, as

edge-of-field monitoring studies yield new

information.

Software development:

Cathedral or the BazaarStrengths of the bazaar model

Given a large enough beta-tester and developer

base, almost every problem will be characterized

quickly and the fix obvious to someone.

– ``Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.''

If beta-testers are treated as a valuable resource,

they will respond by becoming your most valuable

resource.

The next best thing to having good ideas is

recognizing good ideas from users. Sometimes

the latter is better.

Fully open source code should be

expected of all models used for

water quality

The “bazaar model” is preferable, because

model can never be fully validated. Many

eyes are likely to lead to better code.

Demand reproducible modeling studies





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Moving Forward

Agency leaders should

Expect field data to be shared broadly (beyond

those who collected the data).

Expect model source code to be available to all.

Reward sharing data and contributing to

model improvement. Do not use published

papers as the primary metric for the impact of

data and model contributions.

Support model use, or if it is outside the

agency’s mission identify another agency or

entity who can provide support.

Researchers should

Seek ways to use edge of field data to

inform and improve models

Engage in research and model

development communities that do this.

Avoid publishing edge of field model

applications that are not adequately

supported by monitored data.

Journals should: Provide permanent digital repositories for

supplemental information and encourage their

use for all papers.

Journal reviewers should Expect authors to provide all details of their

model calibration and validation, by making

supplementary information available through a

digital repository.

Field Studies

Analysis

Model Mo

del

4Model applications

Models

Field

Study

Recall the two pyramids

Field Studies

Analysis

Model

“Tower

of

Insight”

What we need to move, in order for

edge-of-field monitoring to inform,

support and improve our models

Moving forwardAgency leaders

Expect field data to

be shared broadly.

Expect model source

code to be open.

Reward sharing data

and contributing to

model improvement.

Support model use,

or if it is outside the

agency’s mission

identify another

agency or entity who

can provide support.

Journals and

Reviewers

Provide permanent

digital repositories

for supplemental

information; expect

their use.

Expect authors to

provide all details

of their model

through

supplementary

information

available in a

digital repository.

Researchers

Seek ways to use

edge of field data

to improve models

Engage in model

development

communities

Avoid publishing

model applications

that are not

adequately

supported by

monitored data.

Environment

Frankenberger - Do Edge of Field Monitoring Results Inform, Support, and Improve