Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID MT_2023_Crootof

Understanding Irrigator Decision-Making to Design for Drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters

Institute: Montana
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $18,678 Total Non-Federal Funds: $18,678

Principal Investigators: Arica Crootof

Project Summary: Irrigation in Southwest Montana, like much of the western United States, is the largest consumer of water resources. As such, this research proposes to examine irrigator decision-making processes to inform larger scale basin-management planning. While there is data on the pools and fluxes shaping local water, more information is needed regarding irrigators’ decision-making. These decisions—how much to water, where, and when can have drastic impacts on streamflow and reverberating impacts on agricultural producers, recreation, tourism, water quality, and ecological health. This research contributes to understanding irrigator’s decision making through semi-structured interviews exploring what drivers and constraints shape irrigators’ decision-making, how do irrigators’ goals and intrinsic factors (i.e. values, experience, perceptions of risk) inform their decision-making, and what water storage and management strategies are the most viable and why.