Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2016AR386B

Tracking the growth of on-site irrigation infrastructure in the Arkansas Delta with remote sensing analysis

Institute: Arkansas
Year Established: 2016 Start Date: 2016-03-01 End Date: 2017-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $4,852 Total Non-Federal Funds: $9,828

Principal Investigators: Kent Kovacs

Abstract: Remote sensing can reveal on-site water storage and tail-water recovery systems not found by the sampling procedures of secondary data sources such as the Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). We will use remote sensing techniques to identify features of on-site irrigation infrastructure in the Arkansas counties of Lonoke, Prairie, and Arkansas from 1995 to 2015. Lonoke, Prairie, and Arkansas counties have been state designated critical groundwater areas since 1998. Agricultural producers who construct and install water storage facilities are able to receive a 50 percent cost-share from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission or a 65 percent cost share from the Natural Resources Commission. We will construct a GIS data layer to indicate the location, size, and the date of establishment of on-site water storage and tail-water recovery systems. This data layer will be useful to government resource agencies responsible for assessing the pace of irrigation infrastructure growth in a critical groundwater area. The results of this project could benefit specialists in the management of water as well as policymakers in future analyses of water resource policies and irrigation practices.