IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i4p394-d533223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Regional Dynamics of U.S. Irrigated Agriculture from 2002 to 2017

Author

Listed:
  • Dinesh Shrestha

    (KBR, Inc. Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center, Work Performed under Contract No: 140G0121D0001, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA)

  • Jesslyn F. Brown

    (U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA)

  • Trenton D. Benedict

    (KBR, Inc. Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center, Work Performed under Contract No: 140G0121D0001, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA)

  • Daniel M. Howard

    (KBR, Inc. Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center, Work Performed under Contract No: 140G0121D0001, Sioux Falls, SD 57198, USA)

Abstract

The United States has a geographically mature and stable land use and land cover system including land used as irrigated cropland; however, changes in irrigation land use frequently occur related to various drivers. We applied a consistent methodology at a 250 m spatial resolution across the lower 48 states to map and estimate irrigation dynamics for four map eras (2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017) and over four 5-year mapping intervals. The resulting geospatial maps (called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Irrigated Agriculture Dataset or MIrAD-US) involved inputs from county-level irrigated statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, agricultural land cover from the U.S. Geological Survey National Land Cover Database, and an annual peak vegetation index derived from expedited MODIS satellite imagery. This study investigated regional and periodic patterns in the amount of change in irrigated agriculture and linked gains and losses to proximal causes and consequences. While there was a 7% overall increase in irrigated area from 2002 to 2017, we found surprising variability by region and by 5-year map interval. Irrigation land use dynamics affect the environment, water use, and crop yields. Regionally, we found that the watersheds with the largest irrigation gains (based on percent of area) included the Missouri, Upper Mississippi, and Lower Mississippi watersheds. Conversely, the California and the Texas–Gulf watersheds experienced fairly consistent irrigation losses during these mapping intervals. Various drivers for irrigation dynamics included regional climate fluctuations and drought events, demand for certain crops, government land or water policies, and economic incentives like crop pricing and land values. The MIrAD-US (Version 4) was assessed for accuracy using a variety of existing regionally based reference data. Accuracy ranged between 70% and 95%, depending on the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Dinesh Shrestha & Jesslyn F. Brown & Trenton D. Benedict & Daniel M. Howard, 2021. "Exploring the Regional Dynamics of U.S. Irrigated Agriculture from 2002 to 2017," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:4:p:394-:d:533223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/4/394/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/4/394/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wallander, Steven & Claassen, Roger & Nickerson, Cynthia J., 2011. "The Ethanol Decade: An Expansion of U.S. Corn Production, 2000-09," Economic Information Bulletin 117982, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Nguyen, Trung H. & Nong, Duy & Paustian, Keith, 2019. "Surrogate-based multi-objective optimization of management options for agricultural landscapes using artificial neural networks," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 400(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Hutchins, Wells A., 1931. "Irrigation Districts, Their Organization, Operation and Financing," Technical Bulletins 163085, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    4. Brown, Jesslyn F. & Pervez, Md Shahriar, 2014. "Merging remote sensing data and national agricultural statistics to model change in irrigated agriculture," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 28-40.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Chao & Dong, Jinwei & Zuo, Lijun & Ge, Quansheng, 2022. "Tracking spatiotemporal dynamics of irrigated croplands in China from 2000 to 2019 through the synergy of remote sensing, statistics, and historical irrigation datasets," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    2. Lankford, Bruce A., 2023. "Resolving the paradoxes of irrigation efficiency: Irrigated systems accounting analyses depletion-based water conservation for reallocation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hsing-Hsiang Huang & Michael R. Moore, 2018. "Farming under Weather Risk: Adaptation, Moral Hazard, and Selection on Moral Hazard," NBER Chapters, in: Agricultural Productivity and Producer Behavior, pages 77-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Xue, Xiaobo & Pang, YuLei & Landis, Amy E., 2014. "Evaluating agricultural management practices to improve the environmental footprint of corn-derived ethanol," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 454-460.
    3. Jeremy G. Weber & Conor Wall & Jason Brown & Tom Hertz, 2015. "Crop Prices, Agricultural Revenues, and the Rural Economy," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 37(3), pages 459-476.
    4. Schweizer, Heidi, 2017. "Impacts of the U.S. Ethanol Boom on Corn Transportation Markets," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258513, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Fausti, Scott W. & Van der Sluis, Evert & Qasmi, Bashir A. & Lundgren, Jonathan, 2014. "The Effect of Biotechnology and Biofuels on U.S. Corn Belt Cropping Systems: Updated Version," Economics Staff Papers 168202, South Dakota State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Minghao Bai & Shenbei Zhou & Ting Tang, 2022. "A Reconstruction of Irrigated Cropland Extent in China from 2000 to 2019 Using the Synergy of Statistics and Satellite-Based Datasets," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-27, September.
    7. Schaible, Glenn D. & Aillery, Marcel P., 2012. "Water Conservation in Irrigated Agriculture: Trends and Challenges in the Face of Emerging Demands," Economic Information Bulletin 134692, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Hoekman, S. Kent & Broch, Amber, 2018. "Environmental implications of higher ethanol production and use in the U.S.: A literature review. Part II – Biodiversity, land use change, GHG emissions, and sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3159-3177.
    9. Haqiqi, Iman & Bowling, Laura C. & Jame, Sadia & Hertel, Thomas W. & Baldos, Uris Lantz C. & Liu, Jing, 2019. "Global Drivers of Land and Water Sustainability Stresses at Mid-Century," 2019 Annual Meeting, July 21-23, Atlanta, Georgia 291101, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Sampson, Gabriel S. & Al-Sudani, Amer & Bergtold, Jason, 2021. "Local irrigation response to ethanol expansion in the High Plains Aquifer," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Gardner, Grant & Sampson, Gabriel S., 2022. "Land Value Impacts of Ethanol Market Expansion by Irrigation Status," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 47(3), September.
    12. Kliment, T. & Bordogna, G. & Frigerio, L. & Stroppiana, D. & Crema, A. & Boschetti, M. & Sterlacchini, S. & Brivio, P. A., 2014. "Supporting a Regional Agricultural Sector with Geo & Mainstream ICT – the Case Study of Space4Agri Project," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 6(4), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Momm, Henrique G. & Bingner, Ronald L. & Moore, Katy & Herring, Glenn, 2022. "Integrated surface and groundwater modeling to enhance water resource sustainability in agricultural watersheds," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    14. Junpyo Park & John Anderson & Eric Thompson, 2019. "Land-Use, Crop Choice, and Proximity to Ethanol Plants," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, July.
    15. Linmei Shang & Jifeng Wang & David Schäfer & Thomas Heckelei & Juergen Gall & Franziska Appel & Hugo Storm, 2024. "Surrogate modelling of a detailed farm‐level model using deep learning," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 235-260, February.
    16. Xiaobo Xue Romeiko & Zhijian Guo & Yulei Pang & Eun Kyung Lee & Xuesong Zhang, 2020. "Comparing Machine Learning Approaches for Predicting Spatially Explicit Life Cycle Global Warming and Eutrophication Impacts from Corn Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Fausti, Scott W. & Van der Sluis, Evert & Qasmi, Bashir A. & Lundgren, Jonathan, 2014. "The Effect of Biotechnology and Biofuels on U.S. Corn Belt Cropping Systems," 2014 Annual Meeting, February 1-4, 2014, Dallas, Texas 162468, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    18. repec:ags:aaea22:335819 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Ojeda, Jonathan J. & Volenec, Jeffrey J. & Brouder, Sylvie M. & Caviglia, Octavio P. & Agnusdei, Mónica G., 2018. "Modelling stover and grain yields, and subsurface artificial drainage from long-term corn rotations using APSIM," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 154-171.
    20. Zhang, Chao & Dong, Jinwei & Zuo, Lijun & Ge, Quansheng, 2022. "Tracking spatiotemporal dynamics of irrigated croplands in China from 2000 to 2019 through the synergy of remote sensing, statistics, and historical irrigation datasets," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    21. Bigelow, Daniel & Borchers, Allison, 2017. "Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2012," Economic Information Bulletin 263079, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:4:p:394-:d:533223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.