Effectiveness and Optimization of Best Management Practices in Improving Water Quality from an Agricultural Watershed

This study is part of a Conservation Effectiveness Assessment Project (CEAP) in the Lincoln Lake watershed located in the Ozark Highlands of Northwest Arkansas. The overall goal of this project was to quantify how implementation of various best management practices (BMPs), timing of BMPs, and spatial distribution of BMPs within a pasture dominated agricultural watershed affect reduction in sediment and nutrient transport. The following objectives were completed to accomplish this goal: 1. Synthesize historic watershed BMP, land use, and water quality data in a GIS-linked database to explore relationships between BMPs and their influence on watershed scale water quality. 2. Quantify linkages among nutrient management, land use, BMP implementation, water quality, and ecosystem response at the watershed level. 3. Develop comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of the water quality management practices to optimize BMP implementation, animal agricultural production and water quality improvement at the watershed level. 4. Develop education/demonstration programs to educate stakeholders (farmers, extension agents, state and federal agencies) on linkages among best management practices and watershed scale water quality response.