Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | James Donahey | | Title | People in Ecosystems / Watershed Integration (PE/WI): A tool for teaching tradeoffs in agricultural land use | | Affiliation | Iowa State University - NREM | | Authors | James Donahey, Lisa Schulte, Ryan Atwell | | Keywords | Agriculture, Decision-making, Education, Landscape design, Multifunctional landscapes | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Land use decisions in agriculturally-dominated regions such as the U.S. Corn Belt largely attempt to maximize one ecosystem service at present: crop productivity. There is growing realization, however, that the current course of action is unsustainable and that agricultural landscapes need to be redesigned to provide multifunctional benefits to society. People in Ecosystems/Watershed Integration (PE/WI) is a landscape analysis model designed to evaluate and teach tradeoffs associated with agricultural land use. PE/WI evaluates the ability of alternative land cover configurations to produce marketable crops, enhance water quality, sequester carbon, and provide habitat for biodiversity. Within this simple spread-sheet model, users are initially asked to design a system that meets their perceptions and goals for a well-functioning agricultural landscape by manipulating the spatial pattern of land cover in a virtual watershed. The model instantly computes a variety of outputs, including the value of various crops (i.e., corn, soybean, pasture, switchgrass, timber), stream sediment and phosphorus delivery and nitrate concentration, habitat suitability, and carbon storage. Users then evaluate their landscape’s performance and attempt to optimize land cover patterns according to multifunctional ecosystem criteria. We have designed this tool to teach the following concepts: that (1) land cover patterns are influenced by human design, (2) maximizing one ecosystem output results in poor performance in one or more of the other outputs, and (3) land and aquatic ecosystems are linked. By incorporating this model into environmental education programs, we expect PE/WI to assist in developing a greater public understanding of the tradeoffs associated with land use choices and to foster creativity in developing sustainable agricultural landscapes. |
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