Agricultural Water Resiliency Study
An Opportunity to Improve Agricultural Water Resilience
Improving agricultural water resilience presents an opportunity for agricultural producers to implement on-farm optimization measures that allow field production to be maintained with lower water use (depletion). This enables agricultural crop production to remain at or near average levels during dry years when water shortages are more likely to occur and provides a marketable asset (conserved water) during wet years when shortages are less likely.
This study evaluated opportunities to reduce depletion in agricultural water use to promote resilience and reduce the risk of insufficient Utah Colorado River water supply for farmers and other water users.
Read the Executive Summary
Study Components & Technical Memorandums
Quantify the Study Area Agricultural Depletion (Demand)
Estimate field-scale depletion across study area using remote-sensing based evapotranspiration (ET) data from OpenET.
Read the Water Demand Analysis TM
Quantify the Opportunities to Reduce Study Area Depletion
Estimate theoretical opportunities for reductions in depletion through irrigation system conversions, crop changes, and voluntary fallowing of marginal lands within the study area.
Read the Quantify the Possible TM
Assess the Relationship of Available Future Supply to Agriculture and Agricultural Demand
Compare future Colorado River Basin (CRB) water supplies available to agriculture and estimated agricultural depletions based on current practices and after potential savings through irrigation system conversion and crop changes. Study component supported by the Water Resource Inventory TM (linked below) as well as the Water Demand Analysis and Quantify the Possible TMs (linked above).
Read the Water Resource Inventory TM
Assess the Potential Economic Impacts Related to Agricultural Water Resilience Programs
Assess the potential economic impacts related to implementing various strategies to optimize and conserve water use in Utah’s Upper CRB (UCRB).
Study Takeaways & Recommendations
This study sought to estimate agricultural water depletion using the latest science, evaluate importunities to reduce agricultural water depletion through optimization measures, and assess the economic impacts of those measures. The following summarizes the key takeaways learned through study development along with recommended next steps.
Key Takeaways
- Depletion reduction opportunities are closely tied to reductions in evaporative losses or reductions in agricultural production.
- Remote-sensing based ET data support depletion estimation at the field scale and broader scale aggregation in alignment with emerging methods from Reclamation.
- SDI provides the greatest opportunity for depletion reduction through irrigation system conversions, but practical challenges may exist, such as an increase in irrigation management labor.
- Crop changes from alfalfa and grass hay to spring grain lead to reductions in depletion, but forage replacement would be needed to maintain current livestock numbers.
- Depletion reduction leads to improved agricultural resilience, although under some water supply scenarios, agriculture water shortage may still occur.
- Although the economic analysis indicated minimal regional economic impacts across the study area from conservation strategies under high participation scenarios, some counties were affected more than others. Further, community-level impacts were not captured in the analysis and may be more severe.
Recommendations and Next Steps
- Continue partnership with producers to understand the concerns and practical challenges of implementing agricultural optimization measures.
- Conduct SDI pilot studies with a focus on depletion performance and system viability in Utah.
- Pursue standardized depletion quantification methods in Utah.
- Using Utah’s current agricultural optimization programs, evaluate depletion performance of projects, past and present, and identify optimization measures that provide the greatest depletion reduction at the lowest cost.
- Expand pilot studies and continue collaboration to build consensus around likely depletion savings resulting from agricultural optimization measures.
