Extension Water Initiatives

Transcription

1 Extension Water Initiatives Utah Water Users Workshop March 17, 2015 Presentation by L. Niel Allen Extension Irrigation Engineer

2 Extension is more than 100 years old. Extension integrates teaching, research, and public service. Extension system to respond to critical and emerging issues with research-based, unbiased information. Funding in Utah (approximate 69% State, 20% County, and 11% Federal). County Extension Offices are the front door of USU. Thanks for the support!!

3 Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWEL) Created in 1999 to conduct research on effective irrigation techniques, landscape water demand analyses, low-water use landscaping practices, and plant water needs. Disseminates information to water purveyors, the Utah green industries, USU County Extension offices, and the public to support public education in water-efficient landscaping.

4 Extension Focused, Research Based Horticultural research focused on precision irrigation and low water use landscaping. Implementation research focused on sociological and policy-based methods for conserving water in landscapes.

5 Who We Are Joanna Endter-Wada, PhD Roger K. Kjelgren, PhD Kelly Kopp, PhD Paul Johnson, PhD Larry Rupp, PhD

6 Water Check Program Program inception 1999 Center for Water Efficient Landscaping (CWEL) took over the program in 2005 Participation is voluntary, cost to participants is $0 Pairs of interns visit homes and Commercial, Institutional, and Industrial (CII) sites to evaluate outdoor irrigation systems More than 11,000 residential and 400 CII checks to date

7 The Reason Over 60 percent of urban water use is for irrigation Over-irrigation of urban landscapes is common The typical homeowner irrigates twice as much as is necessary Commercial properties may be irrigated 3 or 4 times as much as is necessary Nearly 1/3 of the urban water supply is wasted by the over-irrigation of landscapes

8 In Addition Current water supply capacity is over-taxed during the growing season Surface and ground waters may be contaminated by runoff and deep percolation Concrete and pavement may be damaged by continual runoff Many plant health issues result from overirrigation

9 Contributing Factors Irrigation systems that are poorly designed, maintained, and inefficient Irrigations that run off or soak past the depth of the roots Irrigations that occur more frequently than required by the landscape

10 Distribution Uniformity DU represents irrigation system efficiency and would be 100% if water were applied completely evenly over an irrigated area If DU is 50%, some areas are receiving twice as much water as other areas

11 DU=50%, Ave. Depth=30, Min. Depth=12, Max. Depth=42

12 DU=85%, Ave. Depth=30, Min. Depth=25, Max. Depth=36

13 Anatomy of a Water Check Meet with homeowner and explain what they ll do Ask for access to the irrigation controller and write down existing program Manually turn on each irrigation station and walk through each zone to identify problems Pick representative zone of each head type and conduct catch cup test for application rate, distribution uniformity, pressure, soil texture and rooting depth Deliver a customized schedule for each station on the clock and present/explain to homeowner/manager Leave schedule, list of system problems with homeowner/manager and program controller

14 Catch Cup Test Place catch cups at and between each head At least two cups catch spray from each head Run sprinklers for set time Read each cup and record depth Calculate precipitation rate and distribution uniformity

15 Now What? Once the precipitation rate and distribution uniformity are determined, irrigation schedules are recommended Frequency changes based upon month April through October Irrigation system improvements are recommended to improve distribution uniformity

16 Types of Analyses Descriptive statistics Development of statistical relationships among water check data Comparison of participant water use to determined irrigation requirements Comparison of water check participant water use prior to and following participation Comparison of water check participants to matched control groups

17 Descriptive Statistics Property Characteristics Average Number Lot Size (ft 2 ) 13, Landscape Size (ft 2 ) Hardscape Size (ft 2 ) Irrigation System Characteristics Fixed Rotor Ave. Operating Pressure (PSI) Ave. Distribution Uniformity (%) Ave. Precipitation Rate (in/hour)

18 Distribution Uniformity of Irrigation Systems

19 Precipitation Rates of Sprinklers

20 Cumulative Participation,

21 Tablet-Based App

22 Database Upgrade A structured query database (SQL) has been developed from the original Access database SQL-programming language for managing data held in relational databases SQL-database standard for American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accepts field data remotely from one or more users Allows generation of custom reports for both administrators and program participants

23 Next Steps Working with agencies to identify priorities for customer engagement Personalized communications portal Web Text Phone

24 Develop of a Smart Phone Application

25 slowtheflow.org

26 Importance of Water Checks A positive means of interaction between water supplier and customer During drought, key way of saying that the agency is thinking of the customer Best way to implement water saving changes Promote gardens, low water use landscaping Promote smart, ET-based controllers, other technologies Water checks can be used to help those with high capacity to conserve

27 Acknowledgements Utah State Legislature CWEL Colleagues Molly Waters Countless interns. You!

28 Joanna Endter-Wada, Ph.D. Dept. of Environment and Society, College of Natural Resources Roger Kjelgren, Ph.D. Dept. of Plants, Soils and Climate, College of Agriculture Diana Glenn, M.S. Urban Water Conservation Research Lab Dept. Environment & Society, College of Natural Resources

29 Software application to analyze and manage urban landscape water use

30 Calculates parcelscale Landscape Irrigation Ratios (LIRs) LIR less than 1 = Efficient Between 1 and 2 = Acceptable Between 2 and 3 = Inefficient Greater than 3 = Excessive Identifies capacity to conserve water applied to urban landscapes

31 Calculates parcel-scale Landscape Irrigation Ratios (LIRs) LIR less than 1 = Efficient Between 1 and 2 = Acceptable Between 2 and 3 = Inefficient Greater than 3 = Excessive LIR = Landscape Water Use estimated Landscape Water Need estimated

32 ASSESS: identify locations with capacity to conserve DELIVER: water use reports to help people conserve TRACK: water use change over time; monitor conservation success

33 Project Impact Modified WaterMAPS software for versatile use by different utilities Partnered with major water providers to analyze water conservation potential within urban areas Found ways to provide classified aerial imagery of urban landscaped area to utilities Advised on ways to promote landscape water conservation behavior

34 Remote Sensing of Urban Oasis Evapotranspiration to Aid Irrigated Landscape Water Conservation Roger Kjelgren, Lawrence Hipps, Alfonso Torres, Robert Gillies Utah State University

35 Background Urban Landscape Water Urban landscapes: economic, ecosystem value Turfgrass - economic impact ~$100M (Haydu et al., 2009) Trees 3.8 Billion standing urban trees, appraised value $2.4 Trillion (Nowak et al., 2010) Much of U.S., irrigation required to maintain landscape value; but limited water Drought, climate change: 2011 Texas drought, >5 trees million dead Urban landscape water conservation key in many cities; get the most landscape for least amount of water

36 Background Urban Landscape Water Getting most landscape for least water Estimate minimum water demand for different landscape plant types; replace minimum water with irrigation Minimum to replace based on evapotranspiration Penman- Monteith equation Penman-Monteith calculates water use from weather station data - radiation, wind, humidity, temperature Penman-Monteith ET equation: use air temperature, resistances to factor out surface temperature Key input surface (stomatal) and aerodynamic resistances

37 Background Urban Landscape Water Operational ET essence of managed, irrigated plant systems Standard ET referenced to well-watered hypothetical turf (ETo) ETo assumes constant r a, r s for large, uniform plant surface Adjust ETo, typically down, for specific plant type; r a, r s implicit Urban ETo oasis; adjusted ETo variably representative Somewhat representative for other turf landscapes Marginally representative for complex biophysical mosaic of non-turf (woody plant) landscapes Direct measurement of large turf ET will help reduce complexity

38 Background Urban Landscape Water ETo x adjustment factor; oasis-problematic Satellite-based ET estimate can replace ETo x adjustment; urban water a little less complex

39 Satellite-Based Urban Actual ET Utah State University investigating satellite-based estimate, in urban area north of Salt Lake City Plant cover Surface temperature

40 Satellite-Based Urban Actual ET Surface temperature Urban areas mosaic of plant cover, microclimates Wide range of hot (paved) pixels, cool (transpiring plants) pixels, everything in between

41 Satellites Satellite-Based Urban Actual ET Landsat 7 & 8 images 8-14 days, MODIS daily (depending on angle) Landsat resolution: 30 m 4-band, 100 m thermal MODIS resolution: 500 m 4-band, 1 km thermal Images analyzed August, September 2014 Unusually cloudy, cool, wet Clouds blocked images Triangle method (Carlson, Petropolous) to estimate water flux Ground validation eddy covariance system

42 Satellite-Based Urban Actual ET Day 227 (15 August) example image NDVI plant cover Cold Limit Surface temperature

43 Urban Actual ET Validation Eddy Covariance at golf course with large fetch

44 Golf Cours e Cold Limit * d Warm Edge a Evaporative = Fraction Latent heat Available energy (R n -G) Evaporative = Fraction a d NDVI

45 Triangle Method vs. Eddy Covariance Fluxes August 15, 2014 Golf Course Scaled Fractional Cover Cold Limit Scaled Surface Radiative Temp Eddy covariance: Evaporative Fraction = 0.75 Triangle Method: Evaporative Fraction = 0.77 Warm Edge Evaporative Fraction x available energy (R n G) =actual ET; Then integrate over entire day to get total daily water use

46 EF=Evaporative Fraction EF x Net radiation minus soil heat flux = ET Eagle Lake Golf Course: Ground measured ET Ground measured ET = 0.17 in/day Weber Basin WCD weather station ETo = 0.23 in x 0.8 = 0.18 in/day Satellite measured ET = 0.16 in/day Eagle Lake Golf Course: satellite measured ET

47 Satellite-Based Urban Actual ET Next step 1 Collect eddy covariance, Landsat, MODIS data in summer 2015 Run triangle method estimates against eddy covariance validation for a season Next step 2 Work with USDA-Ag Research Service Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville MD Data Fusion Models

48 Conclusions Urban landscape irrigation common many regions; conservation increasingly important Current reference Et approach: ET 0 * adjust factor too much empiricism and uncertainty for urban; improvement is problematic, cannot represent complex processes Satellite-based multi-spectral/temperature images can be mined for information to estimate actual ET Collaborate with Agriculture Research Station fusion algorithms to combine Landsat/MODIS: daily, operational actual ET

49 Enhanced Water Education through Collaboration Between USU s Extension Centers and USU s Water Quality Extension Program Nancy O. Mesner Weber and Davis County (through the Utah Botanical Center/Utah House and the Ogden Botanical Gardens), Utah County (through Thanksgiving Point), and Summit County (through the Swaner EcoCenter.)

50 Extension Water Education

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54 Make a Splash in Utah Understand where Utah s water comes from; Understand the many different benefits that our water provides (including domestic water use, agriculture, landscaping/gardens, aquatic communities, maintain/protect watershed functions, recreational opportunities); Learn how conserving water and protecting the water s quality help us protect these different benefits;

55 Make a Splash in Utah Explore the limits to available water Learn what kids and their families can do and what s being done at a larger scale. Understand how healthy watersheds protect our waters.

56 Make a Splash in Utah Teacher Education Workshops Community Events (example Ogden River Parkway) Family Series (Water wise landscapes, river explorers, water bugs, rain barrels, water footprint, properties of water.) Displays and Training Web Pages

57 Propagation of Native Plants for Landscapes Larry Rupp Native plants survive hot dry summers and bitterly cold winters. Bigtooth Maple Example: Propagation by layering Propagation by Wildings Propagation by Seed Propagation by Cuttings Micropropagation

58 Every fall there s an absolutely spectacular show of color. Everybody wants to go see the maples and yet very, very few of them are grown in our home landscapes. Larry Rupp

59 Bigtooth Maple

60 USU Extension Fact Sheets for Native Plants in the Landscape Utah House at USU Botanical Gardens Plant List Weber Basin Water Conservation Plant Lists Water-Wise Plants for Utah Landscapes Water-Wise Plants for Salt Lake City Water-Wise Parking Strip Plants for Salt Lake City Plant Select Plant Search USU Tree Browser LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center Utah Recommended Special Collection

61 A guide to vegetative propagation of native woody plants in Utah Native plants can provide a desirable landscape and survive with less water Describes the propagation of over 50 woody native plants 150 page guide

62 Native Plants Silver Buffaloberry

63 Turf Grass Research Paul Johnson 82 experimental varieties of Kentucky bluegrass and 116 tall fescues were grown at the research farm. Data were gathered about temperature and precipitation, the turf s quality, appearance and ability to recover from drought stress. You can turn the water off for the two or three months when you are normally irrigating and when you turn it on again nearly everything comes back, Johnson said. In year two it doesn t do as well. It s like it has used its resources surviving the previous year. But we found in some other work that even a quarter to a half an inch of water during summer will keep the plants dormant, but able to survive.

64 Water Use in Home and Community Gardens Objectives: Measuring water applied to gardens through flood or surface irrigation and evaluating what plants require, then educating gardeners about more efficient irrigation methods. In the past year, water was metered at gardens in nine Utah counties. The least efficient water use was surface irrigation from secondary water systems. There are opportunities to conserve substantial amounts of water by converting from flood to drip irrigation and maintaining productive gardens.

65 Water and Land About 90 percent of water diversions in Utah are for irrigation. Over 60% of Utah s per capita water use (domestic, municipal, and commercial) is for urban irrigation and 78 percent of Utah total diverted fresh water is for agriculture irrigation. Land Utah has the second fastest sprawl rate in the United States and sprawl attributed to population growth has increased 130,000 acres from 2002 to Currently, over 90% of Utah population live in urban areas that occupy about 1.1% (about 600,000 acres) of the Utah s total area (US Census).

66 Climate and Water Supply Dr. Robert (R.) Gillies, Dr. Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang Dr. Randy Martin, Dr. Robert Davies Utah State Climate Center Provides a look at potential scenarios which are valuable for planning. 1,200-year history of Bear River flows through tree rings