Agricultural irrigated land-use inventory for the counties in the Suwannee River Water Management District in Florida, 2015

Abstract

A detailed inventory of irrigated crop acreage is not available at the level of resolution needed to accurately estimate agricultural water use or to project future water demands in many Florida counties. A detailed digital map and summary of irrigated acreage during the 2015 growing season was developed for 13 of the 15 counties that compose the Suwannee River Water Management District. The irrigated areas were delineated using land-use data, orthoimagery, and information obtained from the water management district consumptive water-use permits that were then field verified between May and November of 2015. Selected attribute data were collected for the irrigated areas, including crop type, primary water source, and type of irrigation system. Results indicate that an estimated 113,134 acres were either irrigated or had potential for irrigation in all or part of the 13 counties within the Suwannee River Water Management District during 2015. This estimate includes 108,870 acres of field-verified, irrigated crops and 4,264 acres of irrigated land observed as (1) idle (with an irrigation system visible but no crop present at the time of the field-verification visit), (2) acres that could not be verified during field visits, or (3) acres that were located on publicly owned research lands. Of the total field-verified crops, 83,721 acres were field crops; 20,962 acres were vegetable crops (sometimes referred to as row crops); 3,089 acres were in tree nurseries, ornamentals, and sod production; and 1,098 acres were fruit crops. Specific irrigated crops included 32,468 acres of corn (primarily for silage); 28,170 acres of peanuts; and 10,331 acres of hay. About 40 percent of the vegetable acreage (8,340 acres) was double cropped (planted with both a spring and a fall crop on the same field). Beans, carrots, and watermelons were the most commonly grown vegetable crops in these 13 counties in 2015. Sprinkler irrigation systems including center pivots, portable or traveling guns, and permanent or solid overhead fixtures accounted for nearly 91 percent (102,874 acres) of the total irrigated acreage in the Suwannee River Water Management District, whereas microirrigation systems including drip irrigation accounted for 9 percent (10,260 acres) of the irrigated acreage. A total of 1,466 center pivots were observed during field verification in 2015 and accounted for 93,093 irrigated acres (which represents 82 percent of the total irrigated acreage). Most center pivots were in use at the time of the field verification, although about 3 percent appeared idle. No flood irrigation systems were observed during field verification in 2015. Overall, groundwater was used to irrigate nearly all of the field-verified acreage (99.8 percent). Dairy wastewater effluent was used on many fields during 2015; however, a quantitative estimate of acreage using effluent could not be determined. Irrigated cropland totaled 26,927 acres in Suwannee County; 16,511 acres in Madison County; 14,862 acres in Hamilton County; and 14,155 acres in Gilchrist C...

Documentation of methods and inventory of irrigation information collected for the 2015 U.S. Geological Survey estimated use of water in the United States

“…Several of these surveys and reports are directly related to crop acreages and irrigation practices. The WSCs used three USDA products for 2015 irrigated-lands information: the Census of Agriculture, the Irrigation and Water Management Survey (IWMS; formerly known as the Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey), and the national Cropland Data Layer (CDL) (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2014, 2016, 2020a. In some cases, locally created USDA documents were used in estimating the number of irrigated acres, such as an Annual Statistical Bulletin for Nevada (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2020c).…”

Exploring Impacts of River Discharge on Forage Fish and Predators Using Ecopath With Ecosim

“…Seavey et al (2011) demonstrated that Suwannee River discharge has declined per amount of rainfall, suggesting some impacts of water withdrawals in the system. Since 1975, human population growth in the region has been considerable and the impacts of this population growth may be seen in the increase in irrigation intensive agricultural (see Marella et al, 2016). Regarding climatic impacts, changes in both precipitation and evapotranspiration have been projected for the area, which will likely impact discharge (Swain and Davis, 2016;Neupane et al, 2019).…”