CAREER: Re-engineering Agricultural Drainage Infrastructure: Upscaling In-field Conservations for Regional Sustainability

农业排水系统(ADS)是由工程渠道和沟渠组成的网络，已在中西部等低起伏地带广泛实施，以管理水，清除多余的土壤水分，并增加粮食和生物燃料产量。然而，ADS也有效地将农田中的多余水和农业废物转移到天然河网中，造成不利的环境影响，包括河流流态改变、水质恶化和水生生境退化。了解和管理受田间尺度农业排水系统影响的区域尺度的水文和环境影响仍然难以捉摸。这一职业项目的总体目标是：1)确定包括天然河流和农业排水渠道在内的天然和工程排水网络(CNEDN)的耦合；2)调查CNEDN在扩大田间规模的农业水管理实践中的作用，以增强区域水的可持续性。该项目的成功完成将促进对天然河流和工程排水网络的基本了解、预测和管理，从而促进区域农业和水的可持续性，从而造福社会。学生教育和培训将为社会带来更多好处，包括指导亚利桑那州立大学的一名研究生。中西部的农业正在经历快速变化，包括从粮食生产转向生物燃料生产，扩大灌溉以减轻干旱影响，以及采用包括氮和磷回收在内的资源回收技术。然而，在确定和确定农业排水系统的特征方面存在严重的知识差距，从而阻碍了对从农场规模到区域规模的水文影响的了解，并限制了在气候变化和社会经济驱动因素下重新设计农业基础设施以实现环境可持续性的能力。这个职业项目将解决这些知识差距。这项研究的具体目标是：(1)通过开发有效和有效的算法来从高分辨率地形数据中获取排水渠道特征来划定农业排水网络；(2)通过将工程排水渠道纳入自然河网来提高水文模型模拟农业排水的水文效应的能力；以及(3)在农业排水基础设施的重组战略下评估当地和区域的水文变异性和水资源可靠性。该项目的成功完成有可能产生变革性的影响，方法是建立新的天然河流和工程排水网络的水文动力学模型和基本知识，以加强对人为干扰下的水文过程的预测能力。为了推进这一职业项目的教育目标，首席调查员(PI)建议为亚利桑那州立大学的本科生/研究生课程开发和实施以项目为基础的教育模块，以教育下一代工程师关于越来越多的人类干预对水文循环的影响。此外，PI计划开发一个工具箱，用于工程河道的划定和建模，并提供用户友好的界面，以鼓励水资源从业者采用。工具箱和其他项目成果将通过在线平台和面对面研讨会传播，以吸引当地合作者和利益相关者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Agricultural drainage systems (ADS) are networks of engineered channels and ditches that have been widely implemented in low relief terrain, such as the Midwest, to manage water, remove excess soil moisture, and increase food and biofuel production. However, ADS also efficiently divert excess water and agricultural wastes from fields into natural river networks, causing adverse environmental impacts including streamflow regime change, water quality deterioration, and aquatic habitat degradation. Understanding and managing regional scale hydrologic and environmental impacts influenced by field scale agricultural drainage systems has remained elusive. The overarching goals of this CAREER project are to 1) identify the coupled natural and engineered drainage networks (CNEDN) including natural rivers and agricultural drainage channels, and 2) investigate the role of CNEDN in upscaling field-scale agricultural water management practices to enhance regional water sustainability. The successful completion of this project will benefit society by advancing the fundamental understanding, prediction, and management of coupled natural river and engineered drainage networks with the goal of enhancing regional agriculture and water sustainability. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through student education and training including the mentoring of one graduate student at Arizona State University.Agriculture in the Midwest is experiencing rapid changes including the switching from food production to biofuel production, expansion of irrigation to mitigate drought impacts, and adoption of resource recovery techniques including nitrogen and phosphorus recovery. However, there are critical knowledge gaps in identifying and characterizing the agricultural drainage systems thereby hindering understanding of hydrologic impacts from farm scale to regional scale and limiting the capability of re-engineering the agricultural infrastructure for environmental sustainability under changing climate and socioeconomic drivers. This CAREER project will address these knowledge gaps. The specific objectives of the research are to (1) delineate agricultural drainage networks by developing efficient and validated algorithms to capture drainage channel features from high resolution terrain data, (2) improve the capability of hydrologic models to simulate the hydrologic effects of agricultural drainage by incorporating engineered drainage channels into natural river networks, and 3) assess the local and regional hydrologic variability and water resource reliability under re-engineering strategies of agricultural drainage infrastructure. The successful completion of this project has the potential for transformative impact through the generation of new models and fundamental knowledge of hydrologic dynamics of coupled natural river and engineered drainage networks to enhance the prediction capability for hydrologic processes under human interferences. To advance the educational goals of this CAREER project, the Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to develop and implement project-based education modules for the undergraduate/graduate curricula at Arizona State University to educate the next-generation of engineers about the impacts of increasing human interferences on the hydrologic cycle. In addition, the PI plans to develop a toolbox for engineered channel delineation and modeling with user-friendly interfaces to encourage adoption by water resources practitioners. The toolbox and other project outcomes will be disseminated through online platforms as well as in-person workshops to engage local collaborators and stakeholders.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.