Web-Based Decision Support Tool for Nutrient and Pesticide Analysis

A web-based decision support tool was developed to assess the impact of pesticides and nutrients on ground and surface water based on soil data, weather data, and management data at the farm level. The tool would support the farmers and stakeholders in decision making regarding water quality at local levels such as within counties and at farm levels. The simulation model NAPRA (National Agricultural Pesticide Risk Analysis) was initially developed to facilitate the assessment of the risk of pesticide loss and nutrient loss to ground or surface water as a result of the management practices using STATSGO soil data. The SSURGO soil database component was incorporated into the original NAPRA WWW system using the Google MapsTM interface to create a web-based decision support system to evaluate the impact of pesticide and nutrient loss on water quality at the farm level using the web-based interface. The SSURGO database provides detailed information on soil properties, and was designed mainly for farm and ranch, landowner/user, township, county, or parish natural resource planning and management by NRCS. Google MapsTM serves as the platform for location visualization and the user interface.