Agricultural Drainage

Bulletin 871-98

Drainage and Water Quality Research Needs

• Evaluate ways to minimize preferential flow of soil-applied pesticides during the first several rainstorms after application.

• Evaluate winter cover crops for ease of establishment and ability to trap significant amounts of N during the off-season, thereby decreasing drainage N losses.

• Investigate the full scope of water table management strategies to reduce sediment, nitrate, and pesticide losses to surface waters.

• Investigate riparian system dynamics, determine riparian area degradation, and develop models that incorporate these functions related to drainage management.

• Investigate the full range of application for agricultural stormwater retention/detention basins, and constructed wetlands, to reduce the nutrient content of runoff and drainage before it moves off-site.

• Investigate and model on a watershed scale the seasonal management of water levels in drainage outlets and networks for controlled release. Evaluate the hydrologic, water quality and quantity, environmental, food production, legal, and socioeconomic aspects of such watershed-scale management.