Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

The Daily Erosion Project (DEP) is an ongoing modelling effort which has evolved from the Iowa Daily Erosion Project. DEP provides comprehensive and dynamic estimates of sediment delivery, soil erosion, and hill slope runoff for agricultural land areas across the Midwestern United States every day for Hydrologic Unit Code 12 (HUC 12) size watersheds. Results are posted every morning at dailyerosion.org. The DEP modelling framework integrates highly resolute spatial and temporal climate data, soil properties, crop rotation and residue management data. This affords the opportunity to use the DEP framework to test changes in phosphorus losses from fields associated with stacking multiple conservation practices together when compared to baseline scenarios of simple maize-soybean rotations or single conservation practices. Understanding the interaction these practices have on one another will help improve timing and targeting of conservation practices as Iowa seeks to achieve the 45% phosphorus loss reduction outlined in the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The presentation will provide an overview of the DEP technology, including how input data are derived and used to make daily erosion estimates on over 200,000 flowpaths in the modelling area, as well as a discussion of the results of the P modelling efforts and plans for future expansion (both land area and model functionality).